Only 230 mn PAN cards linked with Aadhaar ahead of March 31 deadline: CBDT

Just 230 million PAN card holders -- over half of the total PAN card holders -- have so far linked their cards with biometric ID Aadhaar, even as the deadline to link the two comes to an end on March 31, 2019.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra said the Income Tax department has so far issued 420 million permanent account numbers (PAN), of which 230 million have been linked with Aadhaar.

Supreme Court has made it mandatory that Income Tax returns will be filed with Aadhaar and the last date for linking PAN with Aadhaar is March 31.

"By linking with Aadhaar, We will know whether there are any duplicate PAN or not. And there are certain duplicate PANs... If it is not linked, we may cancel the PAN also," Chandra said while addressing an Assocham event.

The Supreme Court in September last year had declared the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid.

ALSO READ: Aadhaar-PAN linking mandatory for filing income tax return, says SC

A five-judge constitution bench had held that while Aadhaar would remain mandatory for the filing of I-T returns and allotment of PAN, it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections.

Chandra said, once Aadhaar is linked with PAN and PAN is linked with the bank account, the I-T department can find out spending pattern and other details of the assessee. Also since many agencies are linked with Aadhaar, it would be easier to gauge whether the benefits of welfare schemes are availed by eligible persons. Read Complete Article