Instant PAN allotment is now available for anyone who has a valid Aadhaar number and a mobile number registered with that Aadhaar. The facility, promised in the 2020 Budget speech, was formally launched by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday.
The trial version of the facility has been available since February 2020, and almost 6.8 lakh instant PANs, with a turnaround time of about 10 minutes, have already been allotted, according to a Finance Ministry statement.
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The interchangeability of PAN and Aadhaar were already introduced in the previous Budget.
The process is paperless and an electronic or e-PAN is provided free of cost. Applicants are required to provide their Aadhaar number on the e-filing website of the Income Tax Department, and then submit the OTP received on the linked mobile number. A 15-digit acknowledgement number is generated and the e-PAN can be downloaded. It is also sent to the linked email account. All PANs are required to be linked to Aadhaar by June 30 for continued validity.
So far, of the approximately 50 crore PANs allotted to taxpayers, only 32 crore have been seeded with Aadhaar.
Published - May 28, 2020 06:02 pm IST
