Last year, the government announced that the PAN has to be linked with the biometric ID by March 31. As per an official statement, the government on Sunday extended the deadline for linking PAN with biometric ID Aadhaar by 6 months till September 30. There have made it clear that quoting of Aadhaar will remain mandatory for filing income tax returns (ITRs), following the Supreme Court order. This is the sixth time the government has extended the deadline for individuals to link their Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar.
In June last year, the government had said that PAN has to be linked with the biometric ID by March 31. The Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT), in a statement said the deadline would be extended to September 30, 2019, unless there’s a specified exemption. It said there were reports that those PANs which are not linked with Aadhaar number by March 31 may be invalidated, following which the matter was considered by the government and the date extended to September 30.
It said the last date of intimating/linking of Aadhaar Number with PAN is September 30, 2019 and made it clear that w.e.f. April 1, 2019, it is mandatory to quote and link Aadhaar number while filing the return of income. The apex court, in September last year, had declared the Centre’s flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid and held that the biometric ID would remain mandatory for filing of I-T returns and allotment of PAN.
A five-judge constitution bench had, however, said that it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar to bank accounts and telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections.
Till September last year, of the 41 crore PANs issued, over 21 crore were linked to Aadhaar. The Supreme Court in its order upheld section 139AA of the Income Tax Act. Section 139 AA (2) of the Income Tax Act says that every person having PAN as on July 1, 2017, and eligible to obtain Aadhaar, must intimate his Aadhaar number to the tax authorities.
The earlier deadlines for linking PAN with Aadhaar were July 31, August 31 and December 31, 2017, March 31, 2018, June 30, 2018 and March 31, 2019.
