On Saturday, the Central Board of Direct Tax (CBDT) had extended the last date to link one's Aadhaar number with Permanent Account Number (PAN) by three months to 31 December 2019. Earlier, the last date for linking PAN with Aadhaar was set at 30 September.

The government has extended the deadline to link Aadhaar number with PAN seven times. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had made it mandatory to link the two for filing income tax returns purposes.

Further, it was also made mandatory by CBDT to start quoting Aadhaar in ITR form starting 1 April 2019.

By linking Aadhaar with PAN, taxpayers can verify their returns through a one-time password (OTP) sent to their phone numbers linked to Aadhaar at the time of filing income tax returns. This has made the verification process fairly easy for taxpayers as it allows them to digitally sign the verification than sent a signed physical copy of the return to the department which is required to complete the legal formality of filing. The OTP process verifies the assessee's signature pledging the information furnished in the ITR form to be true.