180 Million PAN Cards May Be Defunct by 2021 As IT Dept Tightens Noose Around Tax Evaders; Check Details

The PAN and Aadhaar linkage will help tax officials to ensure that tax evaders, who do not show any taxable income but splurge money on extravagant goods such as vehicle, real estate, travelling overseas and buying jewellery.

(Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Are you among those who haven’t got the time to link the permanent account number (PAN) with Aadhaar? Then it’s time to link both because your PAN may become defunct in case you fail to do so before the deadline. As per the Hindustan Times report, over 180 million PANs could become inoperative unless linked with Aadhaar numbers by the March 31, 2021 deadline. The PANs may become defunct as the income-tax (I-T) department, which is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), plans to tighten the noose around tax evaders conducting high-value transactions by using multiple PANs. In the due process, the list of high-value transactions may be expanded to track the expenditure patterns of unscrupulous people, who spend large sums on luxuries but underreport their income to evade tax. PM Modi at the time of unveiling India’s first charter of taxpayers’ rights and duties on August 13, asked people to introspect that only 15 million people in a population of 1.3 billion pay I-T. The PM also appealed to the common man to pay taxes.   The mandatory linking of PAN and Aadhaar is aimed to deter an individual from holding multiple PANs. The linkage will help tax officials to ensure that tax evaders, who do not show any taxable income but splurge money on extravagant goods such as vehicle, real estate, travelling overseas and buying jewellery. Now with the help of a statement of financial transaction (SFT), earlier known as an Annual Information Return (AIR), the IT officials can track the prescribed high-value transactions by taxpayers. The department usually monitors such expenditure details through banks, financial institutions, mutual funds, credit card companies, and other entities.