Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday formally launched a facility for instant allotment of PAN or Permanent Account Number on a near-to-real-time basis. The move was in line with the announcement made in the Union Budget.
The facility is now available for PAN applicants possessing a valid Aadhaar number and having a mobile number registered with Aadhaar.
The allotment process is paperless, and an electronic PAN (e-PAN) is issued to the applicants free of cost, as part of the facility.
The launch of the instant PAN facility is yet another step by the Income Tax Department towards Digital India, thereby creating further ease of compliance to the taxpayers, according to an official statement.
As of May 25, a total of 50.52 crore PANs have been allotted to the taxpayers, of which about 49.39 crore are allotted to the individuals and more than 32.17 crore are seeded with Aadhaar so far.
