The government has made it mandatory for taxpayers to link their Aadhaar numbers with Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) from July 1.
“Every person who has been allotted PAN as on July 1, 2017, and who, in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 139AA is required to intimate his Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to the Principal Director-General of Income-Tax (Systems) or Director-General of Income-tax (Systems) or the person authorised by the said authorities,” said a notification by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
It has also made it mandatory to quote the 12-digit biometric enrolment number at the time of applying for a PAN.
The CBDT has made the Principal DGIT (systems) or DGIT (systems) responsible for specifying the format and standard along with the procedure for verifying documents that are filed with PAN applications or intimation of Aadhaar.
The move comes after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley amended the Finance Bill 2017-18 and made it mandatory to quote Aadhaar for filing income-tax returns and to seed it with the PAN to check tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.
The Supreme Court had earlier this month upheld the validity of the provision to make Aadhaar mandatory for allotment of PAN cards and filing of returns. It had, however, granted a partial stay on its rollout until a Constitution Bench had ruled on the issue of the right to privacy.
In the new notification, the CBDT said the rules will become effective from July 1, 2017.
According to official data, 2.07 crore of the total 24.6 crore PAN cards have already been seeded with Aadhaar numbers. Aadhaar has been issued to 115 crore people so far.