Inconsistent spellings on the PAN and Aadhaar cards have got Bengalureans who are late to linking the two ID documents anxious.
Corrections to PAN card details take 10 to 20 days to process and up to 30 days in the case of Aadhaar. But after multiple extensions, the Income Tax (I-T) department has mandated citizens to link their PAN card with Aadhaar before March 31, 2023, against a penalty of Rs 1,000. Failing to link them will render your PAN card ‘inoperative’. It is an effort to plug the duplication of PAN cards, and boost the audit trail of small transactions.
Name conundrum
Mohan Kumar owns the Yelahanka branch of Alankit, a chain of PAN service providers. He says, “We have approximately 200 centres in Bengaluru. Daily, each branch is getting 50-60 applications for linking since the start of March, which by itself takes 24 to 48 hours to process. On top of that, we are seeing mismatched spellings in many documents. Either initials in the names are missing or surnames. Or, one card has the father’s name, the other has the husband’s name.”
Name mismatch is more common among South Indians, observes L Pattabhi Reddy, who runs a TIN (Tax Information Network) facilitation centre in CV Raman Nagar.
He explains, “Initials in names are not as commonplace in North India as they are in the South. Here, we tend to have initials for our village name, grandfather’s name, father’s name, etc. While Aadhaar accepts the initials, PAN cards don’t. For example, a person’s name can go as KV Shankar in Aadhaar. But in the PAN card, he has to expand the initials. This leads to a mismatch in the system.”
Prabhakar K S, founder and CEO, Shree Tax Chambers, has attended to at least 15 linking requests since February. “In about 10 cases, I had to apply for corrections in the name on PAN cards. The differences were minor, down to the presence or absence of ‘a’. Two of my clients were elderly, so I had to visit a PAN card centre on their behalf,” he shares.
Likewise, a representative from Integrated Enterprises, Malleswaram, said the daily number of PAN card correction forms coming their way has gone up from 20 before March, to 40 and 60 now.
Reddy has also seen discrepancies in the sequence in which the date of birth is filled out. “I am receiving 15-20 calls for PAN card corrections daily,” shares Reddy.
Tweet of complaints
When Metrolife glanced through I-T department’s Twitter feed, we found a range of complaints from netizens: updated data isn’t reflecting on the cards, cards with correct spellings aren’t getting linked, cards that were linked last year have become unlinked, the penalty amount has been deducted but cards did not link, and complaints remain unresolved even after 30 days.
Technical glitch was also a recurring complaint, which Ejipura resident Paulomi Roy also had to encounter. “I tried to link my mother’s PAN and Aadhaar cards multiple times over four days. I was experiencing timeout on the I-T portal every time I tried to pay the penalty amount,” the IT professional recalls.
On Tuesday, her payment of Rs 1,000 went through. “Still, I wasn’t able to link the cards. Like my mother, a lot of elderly people are not conversant with technology. What will they do?” she asks.
‘Be flexible’
Reddy feels in this age of biometric authentication, delays over mismatched spellings are unwieldy. “Let’s focus on biometric linking,” he says. Even Prabhakar seeks “a bit of flexibility” in the procedure.
The two also feel the government neither held a sustained awareness campaign about the deadline nor did it focus on all citizens. “Who will educate Group D employees?” asks Reddy.
People who are now rushing to get the cards linked are non-IT payers, and elderly and the lower middle-class, Prabhakar notes.
While the government hasn’t hinted at an extension, these agencies and consultants feel it is inevitable. As a one-time measure, Prabhakar suggests an extension of two-three months along with a reduced penalty of Rs 500 and free service for senior citizens.
What happens if you don’t link
As per a 2022 circular by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), non-compliant parties “shall be liable to all the consequences under the Income-Tax Act, 1961, for not furnishing, intimating or quoting the PAN”. Simply put, such parties won’t be able to file their upcoming and future ITRs, their pending returns and tax refunds will not be processed, and will be subject to higher TDS. Further, SEBI has insisted investors comply for smooth and continual trading in the secu-
rities market, tax expert Prabhakar K S explains.
ClearTax, a tax and financial services software platform, has listed more repercussions on its website: Opening a bank account, issuance of debit/credit cards, purchase of mutual funds unit exceeding Rs 50,000, and cash deposit during a day exceeding Rs 50,000 could be affected.
Will it impact daily banking? This is a question many are asking. Representatives from two private banks told Metrolife they haven’t received any circular from the government on the same.
Exemptions
As per the I-T portal, NRIs, foreign citizens, people above 80 years, and residents of Assam, Meghalaya, and Jammu & Kashmir have been exempt from the rule.
How to link
This can be done online at incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/. Or, over SMS (send UIDPAN (space) 12-digit Aadhaar number (space) 10-digit PAN number to either
567678 or 56161)