17 crore PAN cards could soon turn useless, if they fails in doing this

New Delhi: The income tax department has extended the deadline to link PAN (Permanent Account Number) card with Aadhaar card to March 31, 2020, for the eighth time, still over a 17 crore PAN card holders are yet to link the two documents. After the amendment in the Finance Bill, 2019, the income tax department has the authority to make such PAN cards which are not linked to Aadhaar inoperative. As per Clause 41 of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, “If a person fails to intimate the Aadhaar number, the permanent account number allotted to such person shall be made inoperative after the notified date in the manner as may be provided by rules.” The amendment came into effect from September 1, 2019. If PAN cardholders fail to link their PAN with Aadhaar till March 31, all such inoperative PAN cards will become useless.Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur recently told the Lok Sabha that 30.75 crore PANs were linked to Aadhaar till January. However, 17.58 crore PAN card holders are yet to abide by the guidelines. The due date to link the 10-digit alphanumeric number PAN issued by the income tax department with UIDAI’s 12-digit identification number has been extended to 31 March 2020. “The extension of due date for linking of PAN with Aadhaar will benefit these PAN holders as they will get extra time to link their PANs with Aadhaar,” Thakur said.