Mumbai Congress president owns two PAN cards

Mumbai Congress president Kripashankar Singh, a major contender for ministerial berth in the Ashok Chavan government, may land in trouble following revelation that his affidavit for the 2004 and 2009 assembly elections contained different PAN card numbers.

Singh's affidavit, posted on the Election Commission's website, gives his Income Tax PAN number declared in 2004 as AVAPS1485L, while in 2009 election, it is CFYPS989P.

According to IT sources, the nomenclature-Permanent Account Number- is self-explanatory that it cannot change during the holder's lifetime. Any change in the address or city would entail a change in the assessing officer but not the number.

Sources said on condition of anonymity that Singh could be prosecuted under the provisions of the IT Act if it was proved that he had deliberately violated the law.

If two PAN cards with varying numbers are issued to a holder erroneously by the department, he has to return one of them. While Singh was unavailable for comments, when contacted, state's chief  electoral officer Debashish Chakrabarty said,"I cannot respond to such queries."