KUALA LUMPUR: Taxpayers failed to download digital certificates through the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) e-Filing system because service provider Digicert Sdn Bhd could not handle the amount of simultaneous web traffic.

The “delays” that took place a day after the e-Filing system for this year was launched resulted in taxpayers being unable to make submissions or download digital certificates.

Digicert chief executive Noor Azli Othman said contrary to what was reported in the newspapers, the system had not crashed.

“The system was still capable of producing digital certificates at that time,” he said.

“However, the delay occurred because there was a huge number of people making submissions and downloading certificates at the same time.”

Noor Azli said the bottleneck had now been fixed with upgrades made to software, storage capacity and hardware.

“The system is now able to handle more than 20,000 requests for digital certificates an hour.”

IRB chief executive Hasmah Abdullah said that since March 1, 31,470 people had used e-Filing services compared with 5,405 for the corresponding period last year.

“Taxpayers are urged to use e-Filing as it will also result in faster refunds,” she added.

Hasmah said the IRB would prioritise refunding and that by this year the IRB would try to refund taxpayers without the taxpayer having to apply for it.

“This is because with the integration of e-Filing with the IRB’s main database the credit amount can be seen by our officers the day after a taxpayer makes his submission.”

She added that RM607mil had been refunded to 34,850 companies and individuals since Jan 1.

Hasmah also reminded taxpayers to settle their taxes early to avoid delays in refunds. For more information, visit www.hasil.org.my.