15.02 Crore PAN Numbers Not Yet Linked with Aadhaar: Govt

Moneylife Digital Team 26 July 2022

Nearly 25% or 150.2mn (million) out of the total 617.3mn permanent account numbers (PANs) are not yet linked with Aadhaar, the Union government informed the Rajya Sabha.

In a written reply, Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, says, "The due date for linking of PAN with Aadhaar was extended from time to time to facilitate the PAN holders to link their PAN with Aadhaar. Due to these efforts, 46.70 crore PANs out of total Individual PANs of 61.73 crore were linked with Aadhaar, which implies that more than 75% of the PANs are now linked with Aadhaar."

Abdul Wahab, a member of Parliament (MP), has asked questions about linking of PAN with Aadhaar. He also wanted to know whether the government is considering waiving off the penal fee and extending the time to link PAN with Aadhaar at least during the current financial year.

In his reply, the minister says there was no such proposal before the ministry to extend the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar or waiving off the penalty for failing to link it.

According to the minister, Section 234H of the Income-Tax Act,1961 provides that where a person, who is required to intimate his Aadhaar under sub-section (2) of Section 139AA and fails to do so on or before a prescribed date, he shall be liable to pay a fee of up to Rs1,000 and 31 March 2022 has been notified as the prescribed date for intimating Aadhaar to link it with PAN.

"Further, through notification no.17/2022 dated 29 March 2022, the fee for failure to intimate Aadhaar before this date has been prescribed as Rs500 if the intimation is made within three months of the prescribed date of 30 June 2022 and Rs1,000 if the intimation is made after three months," Mr Chaudhary says.

Responding to another question, the minister informed the upper house that during the past five years, from FY2018 till date, 331.6mn individuals and 762,000 companies were issued PANs.

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