Only A Third Of Individual PANs Linked To Aadhaar So Far
Out of 31.50 crore PANs issued to individuals, 8.19 crore have been linked with Aadhaar.
.jpg?rect=0%2C0%2C1280%2C720&auto=format%2Ccompress&w=200)
Only about a third of individuals who hold permanent account numbers (PAN) have linked them with Aadhaar so far, even as the government made it mandatory for filing income tax returns.
Of the 31.50 crore PAN cards issued to individuals as of July 17, around 8.19 crore PANs have been linked to Aadhaar, a senior finance ministry official told BloombergQuint on condition of anonymity. Another 80 lakh PAN cards held by companies, firms and co-operatives.
The deadline for filing income tax returns is on July 31 and the window to link PAN to Aadhaar is still open. So it’s possible that the number will increase in the coming days.
Rahul Garg, head of direct tax at PwC says the current difference could be on account of a number of factors – complacency, difficulties faced while trying to link the two, and irregular PAN and Aadhaar.
People have not taken it seriously and some part of it can be attributed to irregular PAN cards like duplicate or fake or people may be facing practical problems. Some individuals may have lost their Aadhaar.Rahul Garg, Head-Direct Tax, PwC
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said at multiple occasions that one of the objectives of linking Aadhaar and PAN was to weed out fake or duplicate PAN cards from the system.
The government made quoting of Aadhaar mandatory to file income tax returns and obtain PAN in March this year by moving an amendment to the Finance Bill 2017. The changes would be effective from July 1, the Centre had said.
For now, the government has not notified a date from which PAN cards not linked will become invalid but it will do so in due course, another senior finance ministry official told BloombergQuint. Taxpayers who have not linked Aadhaar can do so until further notice from the tax department, the first official quoted above said.
The mandatory linkage of Aadhaar has been challenged by several petitioners in various courts across the country. In a June 9 judgment, the Supreme Court did not strike down Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 that mandates Aadhaar-PAN linkage, but said that as an interim measure the unique identification number will not be mandatory to file returns for those who do not have it. But those who have an Aadhaar, must link it to PAN for filing returns.