As per the PTI report, the Department of Income tax receives as many as 15-20 lakh applications for PAN issuance on a weekly basis and the same are processed in a matter of few hours to 15 days time.

NSDL and UTIITSL, the two service providers serve as an intermediary in the process and collect applications for PAN, processes and digitize the data and thereafter furnish the same to the tax department for the final issuance or allotment of PAN. The physical PAN copy and/or e-PAN card is then issued to the applicant.

"The time taken for processing these applications and allotment of PAN generally ranges from few hours to two weeks", said Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla.

The minister said that there is an in-built clause in the agreement with the service providers in relation to the penalty for late issuance of PAN and as appropriate the same is levied on case to case basis.

With Inputs From PTI