Starting tomorrow, IT department will not issue PAN cards for five days

PAN number allotment by the Income Tax department will remain suspended for five days beginning Monday owing to a software upgrade exercise.

However, applications for fresh Permanent Account Number (PAN) will continue during this time on the two designated and government-authorised web portals of NSDL and UTIITSL.

"The Income Tax department is in the process of upgrading software applications. It is for information of PAN applicants that PAN allotment by the department will remain suspended between October 5-9 due to PAN data migration activity.

"However, PAN applications, through online and offline modes, will continue to be received by PAN service centres of M/s NSDL and M/s UTIITSL," an official statement said.

A senior official explained that the IT department is undertaking a huge exercise for migration of the PAN database post the creation of new charges in the department and, hence, a system update was necessary.

"The backlog of PAN applications will be cleared within three days. Inconvenience to taxpayers is regretted," the statement said.

PAN is a 10-digit unique alpha-numeric number allotted by the IT department to individuals and entities for tax purposes.