STATE TIMES NEWS
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday extended the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar by three months to June 30 to enable people comply with the mandatory income tax provisions.
The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar was to end on March 31. As per the income tax department, failure to link the two unique identities will lead to the unlinked PAN becoming inoperative.
There have been demands, including from political parties, for giving more time to people to link PAN (Permanent Account Number) with their unique 12-digit identification number Aadhaar.
“In order to provide some more time to the taxpayers, the date for linking PAN and Aadhaar has been extended to June 30, 2023, whereby persons can intimate their Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for Aadhaar-PAN linking without facing repercussions,” the finance ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Earlier also, the government had extended the deadline several times. The government had imposed aCfee of Rs 500 on linking of PAN with Aadhaar from April 1, 2022 and the amount was later increased to Rs 1,000 from July 1, 2022.
So far, more than 51 crore PANs have been linked with Aadhaar.
Under the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, every person who has been allotted a PAN as on July 1, 2017 and eligible to obtain Aadhaar Number, was required to intimate his or her Aadhaar to the prescribed authority on or before March 31, 2023, on payment of a prescribed fee.
Failure to do so would have attracted certain actions under the Act from April 1, 2023.
“The date for intimating Aadhaar to the prescribed authority for the purpose of linking PAN and Aadhaar has now been extended to June 30, 2023,” the statement said.
From July 1, 2023, PAN of taxpayers who have failed to intimate their Aadhaar shall become inoperative.
Once the PAN becomes inoperative, the tax payer concerned will not be able to claim tax refund nor interest on it. Also, TDS and TCS will be deducted /collected at a higher rate from them.
“PAN can be made operative again in 30 days, upon intimation of Aadhaar to the prescribed authority after payment of fee of Rs 1,000,” the ministry said.
Naveen Wadhwa, DGM of tax advisory firm Taxmann, said it should be noted that the payment of fees of Rs 1,000 remains mandatory, and no relaxation has been given in this regard.
Vivek Jalan, Partner at Tax Connect Advisory, said Aadhaar and PAN linkage is mandatory to get the benefits of income tax refunds and credits of TDS/TCS, and also to avoid paying higher taxes in the form of penal TDS.
Lallit Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director of financial services firm Vedant Asset, said if a taxpayer fails to do so by the end of June, PAN will become inoperative, which means that the person will not be able to file income tax returns, perform several banking services, or carry out stock market transactions.
According to the ministry, those persons who have been exempted from PAN-Aadhaar linking will not be liable to face action.
This category includes those residing in specified states, a non-resident as per the Income Tax Act, an individual who is not a citizen of India or individuals of the age of eighty years or more at any time during the previous year.
Last week, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to extend the deadline by six months for linking PAN with Aadhaar and remove the Rs 1,000 fee.