Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget on Friday that PAN cards and Aadhaar cards will now be interchangeable, and only one will be needed to file income tax returns.
You can now use an Aadhaar card for every cash transaction that requires the Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, including cash withdrawal of above Rs 50,000 and purchase of gold above Rs 2 lakh, according to Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Budget on Friday that PAN cards and Aadhaar cards will now be interchangeable, and only one will be needed to file income tax returns. Pandey added that there will be a change in the software to allow interchangeability.
Explaining the rationale, Nirmala said on Saturday, "At this stage, it is to facilitate processes. Many people have told me that they don't have a PAN card. But that doesn't mean that they have to be harassed by a sense of urgency. We said take it if you want to, but you can survive even without it. After all, Aadhaar has been distributed to so many people in the country."
"Some people may prefer to use Aadhaar and some may prefer PAN. But at the backend for every Aadhaar there will be a PAN and for every PAN there will be an Aadhaar," Pandey clarified.
So far, about 22 crore PAN cards have been linked to Aadhaar. On the other hand, more than 120 crore people have Aadhaar.
"The PAN base grows indirectly from 22 crore to 120 crore because for every PAN, Aadhaar has become equivalent or interchangeable," he said.
The government, however, doesn't plan to phase out PAN card as of now. "I don't see any need for phasing it out. It is the people's choice. After all, there are people who are more comfortable in using the PAN card," Pandey said. The finance minister said that the response of citizens and precision of the technology will have to be kept in mind before thinking of phasing out the PAN card.
The argument for phasing it out is that several cases have come to light where people have obtained a PAN card fraudulently. There have also been instances of people quoting the wrong PAN for transactions. However, the Aadhaar is backed by biometric data, which makes it more secure and reliable.
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