The Income Tax Department on Monday issued a public message saying it was “mandatory” to link PAN with Aadhaar and advised people not to “miss” the stipulated deadline of March 31.
The department had last month said Permanent Account Number(PAN) will become “inoperative” if it is not linked with Aadhaar bythis date.
“Don’t miss the deadline!”
“It is mandatory to link your PAN and Aadhaar before31st March, 2020. You can do it through Biometric Aadhaar authentication &also by visiting the PAN service centers of NSDL and UTITSL,” thedepartment said in the latest post on social media.
In a video, attached with the message on its Twitter handle@IncomeTaxIndia, it said such a linking is for a “beneficialtomorrow”.
The video described that there are two ways to complete thistask:
1. Send SMS to 567678 or 56161 in the format: UIDPAN
2. Through e-filing portal of the department:www.Incometaxindiaefiling.Gov.In.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), that frames policyfor the I-T department, had extended the deadline for this task for the eighthtime on December 30 last year.
The Supreme Court had in September 2019 declared theCentre’s flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid and held that thebiometric ID would remain mandatory for the filing of tax returns and allotmentof PAN.
Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that everyperson having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and is eligible to obtain Aadhaar, mustintimate his Aadhaar number to tax authorities.
Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) to a resident of India and PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric numberallotted by the I-T department to a person, firm or entity.
As per official data updated till January 27, over 30.75crore PANs have been linked to Aadhaar.
At that time, 17.58 crore PANs were yet to be linked withthe 12-digit biometric ID.
The CBDT had also issued a notification amending I-T rulesand inserted Rule 114AAA that stipulates the “manner of making permanentaccount number inoperative” for those who do not link the two by March 31.
The notification said persons whose PANs become inoperativeshall be liable for all the consequences under the I-T Act for not furnishing,intimating or quoting PAN.For those linking PAN with Aadhaar after March31, 2020, the I-T department had said it shall “become operative from thedate of intimation of Aadhaar number”.