Over 1 cr PANs linked to Aadhaar in June
Even if PAN is not linked, it remains valid for now. However, people who have not linked the two numbers cannot file income tax returns this year.
NEW DELHI: More than one crore permanent account numbers (PAN) have been linked with the 12 digit unique Aadhaar in the past month, taking the total number of linkages to 7.4 crore so far — up from 6.2 crore in the first week of June.
Sources, however, said of the 25 crore existing PANs, more than 10 crore may remain unlinked till the end of the year.
“There has been a huge increase in linking PAN with Aadhaar in the last one month, the number has increased from 6.2 crore to about 7.4 crore now... But from now on, the number may not increase very much, though people who wish to link the two can do so,” sources in the government said.
But those who are yet to link the two numbers need not worry since their PAN will be valid till the end of the year. “Even if PAN is not linked, it remains valid for now. However, people who have not linked them can’t file income tax returns this year,” CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra said.
The government will decide the cut-off date, after which PANs will be deemed invalid, only after August. Sources said the government is likely to give time till the end of the year to link PANs with Aadhaar. “We are yet to announce the exact date but one can safely say that PANs not linked with Aadhaar will not remain valid after this year,” sources said.
Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic adviser of State Bank of India, said the increase in number of PANs getting linked with Aadhaar indicated that the tax base will widen.
The move to link the two unique identification numbers was aimed at curbing circulation of black money. The government earlier said the PANs not linked with the Aadhaar numbers would eventually become invalid and will not be considered for identification purposes. The government has also made it mandatory to seed all bank accounts with the Aadhaar number by December 31. The bank accounts which are not Aadhaar linked will be frozen after December 31.