The government on Thursday extended by four months the deadline for linking PAN with biometric identifier Aadhaar till December 31. The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar for taxpayers was to end on Thursday.

This comes at a time when the government has granted a similar extension for the furnishing of Aadhaar for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.

"To facilitate ease of compliance by the taxpayers, CBDT has extended the date (for) linking Aadhaar with PAN till December 31, 2017," the finance ministry said in a statement. Link Aadhaar- PAN In Two Steps

Also, the 'due-date' for filing income tax returns and audit reports has been extended by a month to October 31 for all taxpayers who were liable to file their returns by September 30, 2017.

The Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the government's decision on Aadhaar and has posted the matter for next hearing in November.

"Hence, the extension of date for PAN-Aadhaar linking was in line," a source said.

Section 139 AA (2) of the income tax Act says every person having PAN as on July 1, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities.

However, those categorised as non-resident Indians according to the Income Tax laws, people who are not citizens of India, those above 80 years of age and residents of the states of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir had been exempt from the requirement. How To Link Aadhaar With PAN Card Offline?

The source further said that people who do not have Aadhaar can file their income tax returns, but their returns will not be processed till they submit their Aadhaar number.

The tax department had on July 31 stated that "unless a finding is made that Aadhaar is constitutionally not valid, tax return filers will need to link their PAN with Aadhaar by August 31".

Incidentally, December 31 is also the deadline for people to link their bank accounts with Aadhaar.

Tax filers, however, were allowed to file their annual income returns by August 5 without linking their Aadhaar with PAN.

They were to just quote Aadhaar or the acknowledgment number issued after having applied for the ID.

It had further stated that "income-tax returns filed will not be processed should tax filers fail to link Aadhaar and PAN on or before August 31."

The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar previously was July 31 but was extended to August 31.