PAN To Become Inoperative If Not Linked With Aadhaar By 31 March: IT Dept

Permanent Account Number (PAN) of those who fail to link it with Aadhaar by 31 March 2020, will become inoperative, said the Income Tax department on Friday.

Up to 27 January 2020, over 30.75 crore PANs have already been linked to Aadhaar, however, 17.58 crore of them are yet to fulfill the mandatory requirement.

"Where a person, who has been allotted the permanent account number as on July 1, 2017 and is required to intimate his Aadhaar number under sub-section (2) of section 139AA, has failed to intimate the same on or before March 31, 2020, the permanent account number of such person shall become inoperative immediately after the said date for the purposes of furnishing, intimating or quoting under the Act," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said.

In its notification, the CBDT said that an amendment has been made to the Income Tax rules with the insertion of Rule 114AAA, stipulating the "manner of making permanent account number inoperative".

It further said that persons whose PANs become inoperative shall be liable for all the consequences under the IT Act for not furnishing, intimating or quoting the PAN.

For those linking PAN with Aadhaar after 31 March 2020, the CBDT said the PAN shall "become operative from the date of intimation of Aadhaar number".

The Supreme Court had in September 2018 declared Aadhaar as constitutionally valid and held that the biometric ID would remain mandatory for the filing of income tax returns and allotment of PAN cards.

The deadline to link the two has been extended several times by the tax department.