Deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar extended to March 31

The Income Tax (I-T) department has extended the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar by three months to March 31, 2020.

As per earlier notification, the cut-off date was December 31, 2019 after it was extended for three months in September.

“The due date for linking of PAN with Aadhaar as specified under sub-section 2 of Section 139AA of the Income-Tax Act, 1961 has been extended from 31st December, 2019 to 31st March, 2020,” the tax department said in a Twitter post.

The tax department has been extending the PAN-Aadhaar linking deadline with a large number of people yet to complete the process. The process to link the two documents is easy as one can go to the tax department’s e-filing portal to complete the interlinking process. It can also be linked through mobile SMS.

The status can also be checked instantly.

A tax professional said that even many business people are yet to link the two documents as they have certain apprehensions.

“Aadhaar number is being used virtually for getting almost all the documents such as Passport and Voter identity card. Besides, it is required for purchase of properties and vehicles. Many people fear that once they link their Aadhaar with PAN, all their information would be automatically shared with the government,” the tax consultant said.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has announced a milestone of sorts with the total number of Aadhaar cards issued so far crossing the 1.25 billion mark. With this, 125 crore residents of the country have received their own 12-digit unique identity number since the service was rolled out in 2009, the government said on Friday.

Over the years, the Aadhaar card has evolved as a primary identification document for a number of purposes in India. The Aadhaar-based authentication services have been used almost 37,000 crore times since inception. As per UIDAI records, about three crore authentication requests are received on an average everyday.

It has also been observed that people are updating their Aadhaar details. UIDAI has recorded about 331 crore successful Aadhaar updates (biometric and demographic) till date. At present UIDAI receives about 3-4 lakh Aadhaar update requests every day, the government said.

The Aadhaar, with a unique identity number, was introduced in 2009. It is the world’s largest biometric identification system.

Indo-Asian News Service