Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman formally launched the immediate Permanent Account Number (PAN) facility which uses Aadhaar number-based e-KYC. Earlier, the Beta facility was launched in February 2020 on the income tax department’s e-filing website.
The ‘beta version’ for fast allotment of PAN under examination basis was started on February 12, 2020, on the e-filing website of the Income-Tax Department. Since then, 6,77,680 instant PANs were allotted with a turnaround of about 10 minutes, till May 25, 2020. The process is paperless and electronic. All PANs are required to be linked to Aadhar by June 30 for continued validity. This electronic PAN (e-PAN) is going to be issued to applicants free-of-cost, the department said on its Twitter handle.
Here’s how you can apply for an immediate PAN:
1. Log on to the e-filing website of the Income Tax Department.
2. Enter your Aadhaar number. An OTP is sent to the Aadhaar registered mobile number and must be entered on the site.
3. On completion of this process, a 15-digit acknowledgment no. is generated.
4. In case you want to check the status of your request, you can log in at any time by providing the valid Aadhaar number.
5. Once allotted, the e-PAN can be downloaded. The e-PAN is also sent to the applicant on the email id, as registered with the Aadhaar.
A total of 50.52 crore PANs are allotted to the taxpayers, out of which, around 49.39 crores are allotted to the individuals and only 32.17 crores are seeded with Aadhaar so far. This will assist the taxpayer to get free of the problem of filling up an application form and submitting it to the tax department and would likewise facilitate the procedure for tax administration of sending PAN cards to the residential address of the taxpayer.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech (2020- 21)had said that “wealth creators are going to be respected in this country and to make sure simple living and simple conduct of business, it’s essential to possess fairness and efficiency of tax administration.”
Its things like these that make life more convenient at times like these.
