Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while explaining why he had linked Aadhaar with PAN said on Wednesday that some people have multiple PAN cards and are using it as a tool for tax evasion.
"Aadhaar has biometric details, so its chances of misuse become minimal. When the country has so much technology, and when it is being put to use, why create such a hue and cry about it? It is an anti-evasion measure which will benefit the country. So the government considers it right to implement it," he said.
Speaking in Parliament, Jaitley said that the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) had been conceptualised by the previous UPA dispensation and the NDA government is putting it to use with 98 per cent adults or more than 108 crore people in India have been issued Aadhaar numbers.
"We have kept a provision that a person who does not have Aadhaar can say 'I have applied for Aadhaar.' We can't allow people to say I will not make Aadhaar, but through multiple PAN cards will continue to evade taxes," he said.
Earlier, in the Lok Sabha, the Finance Bill came up for discussion and Jaitley faced some tough questioning before the Lok Sabha passed the Bill, with 40 amendments.
The Opposition members fiercely protested the government's move to tag non-tax bills with the Finance Bill and described it a "backdoor entry" to classify them as money bills, which don't require the approval of the Rajya Sabha, where government is in a minority.
Tempers flared up in the Lok Sabha on the government's move to make the Aadhaar card mandatory to file income-tax returns from July 1 to check tax evasion, as well as to apply for a permanent account number.
This move has also been introduced in the Financial Bill. Members from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Bhartruhari Mahtab questioned the government's move "forcing" the people to have Aadhaar number which they said went against the Supreme Court directions. Just before the Bill was passed, BJD members staged a walkout.
The Finance Bill has also lowered the cash transaction limit from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 2 lakh from April 1. The Bill includes amendments to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, Companies Act, Employees' Provident Fund Act, Information Technology Act, Smuggling and Foreign Exchange Act and a host other laws.
Asked to respond on the issue of remonetization, Jaitley said that the process was still going on. "But through data mining, the CBDT and the income-tax department have found out from the first-cut analysis that cash deposited by 18 lakh people did not match with their income profile," he said.
The authorities had sought explanation from these 18 lakh entities through SMS and emails, he added. Jaitley also rejected charges of bypassing the Rajya House by incorporating amendments to various Acts into the Finance Bill.
He said that these were mere clarifications and rationalisations and cited that there were 40 judicial tribunals governed by various laws, with difference in pay, remuneration and work structures. The law has now brought parity and merged various tribunals to save the exchequer's money.
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