FM Sitharaman Launches Free Instant PAN Card Facility Using Aadhaar

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman formally launched the facility for instant allotment of PAN card using Aadhaar-based e-KYC, as announced in the Union Budget 2020. Those with a valid Aadhaar number and a mobile number registered on the UIDAI database will be able to apply for Permanent Account Number (PAN) online.

The allotment process is paperless and an electronic PAN (e-PAN) is issued to the applicants free of cost by the income tax department.

"The facility of instant PAN through Aadhaar based e-KYC has been launched formally today, however, its 'Beta version' on trial basis was started on 12th Feb 2020 on the e-filing website of Income Tax Department. Since then onwards, 6,77,680 instant PANs have been allotted with a turnaround time of about 10 minutes, till 25th May 2020," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The process of applying for instant PAN is very simple. The instant PAN applicant is required to access the e-filing website of the Income Tax Department to provide her/his valid Aadhaar number and then submit the OTP received on her/his Aadhaar registered mobile number. On successful completion of this process, a 15-digit acknowledgement number is generated.

If required, the applicant can check the status of the request anytime by providing her/his valid Aadhaar number and on the successful allotment, can download the e-PAN. The e-PAN is also sent to the applicant on her/his email ID, if it is registered with Aadhaar.

"The launch of the Instant PAN facility is yet another step by the Income Tax Department towards Digital India, thereby creating further ease of compliance to the taxpayers," the ministry said.

It is mandatory to link your PAN card with Aadhaar within 30 June 2020.