The government on Saturday extended the deadline to link Permanent Account Number (PAN) with Aadhaar to December 31 from September 30.
The announcement was made through a notification issued by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), a division of the finance ministry.
This is the seventh time that the government has extended the deadline for linking of PAN with Aadhaar.
The linking of the two, before the deadline, is important since the PAN card will become inoperative if not linked.
Last time, the government had extended the linking of the two identification numbers in March this year by six months to September 30.
Besides, the Supreme Court had in September last year declared the government’s flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid and held that quoting of the Unique Identity Number would remain mandatory for filing of income tax returns and allotment of PAN.
In July this year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech had said that Aadhaar card will now double up as a PAN card for all purposes including filing of Income Tax.
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“More than 120 crore Indians now have Aadhaar. Therefore, for ease and convenience of tax payers, I propose to make PAN and Aadhaar interchangeable and allow those who do not have PAN to file Income Tax returns by simply quoting their Aadhaar number and also use it wherever they are required to quote PAN,” she said.