As many as 11.5 crore PAN cards were deactivated for not being linked to Aadhar cards within the deadline, according to an RTI reply by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The deadline for linking PAN card with Aadhar expired on June 30 this year. Out of the total 70.24 crore PAN card holders in the country, 57.25 people linked their PAN cards to Aadhar. According to the RTI reply, more than 12 crore PAN cards have not been linked to Aadhar, out of which 11.5 crore cards have been deactivated.
The RTI was filed by an activist in Madhya Pradesh Chandra Shekhar Gaur. The linking of the Aadhar and PAN cards is done automatically for the new applicants of PAN while applying whereas it is mandatory to link both of them for those PAN holders who were allotted the card on or before July 1, 2017.
The RTI reply stressed that under sub-section (2) of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, it is mandatory for every person who was allotted a PAN card on July 1, 2017, to intimate his Aadhar number.
“This linking of PAN and Aadhaar was required to be done on or before a notified date, failing which PAN becomes inoperative,” the RTI reply said.
CBDT has imposed a penalty of Rs 1,000 to get the PAN card reactivated.
CBDT had on March 30 last year listed out the implications of not linking PAN and Aadhar cards on or before the notified date. It had also extended the deadlines for linking both to June 2023.
