All the new income tax payers in the country will soon begin to get biometric Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards with enhanced security features.
NEW DELHI: All the new income tax payers in the country will soon begin to get biometric Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards with enhanced security features like fingerprints or retinal scans, aimed at checking duplicate cards and better tax compliance.
"The process of eliminating about 13 lakh duplicate PAN cards is in last mile. Once that process is completed shortly, then we will set a date, after which all new PAN cards will only be biometric," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told on Tuesday after inaugurating the national conference of Chief Income Tax Commissioners.
When asked whether the date of launching biometric PANs could be October, he said, "it could be."
Referring to the fate of current PAN card holders, Chidambaram said, "they will be persuaded to switch over to biometric PAN cards in their own interest. Earlier PAN cards will, of course, remain valid."
Finance Ministry had earlier set up an internal group to finalise the norms for introduction of biometric PANs.
The ministry is hoping to introduce iris-based biometric PANs to all new applicants once the present data about PAN cards is updated.
Chidambaram also said it has been decided in the meeting that there will be "integrated 360-degree profiling of individual tax payers." When pressed, he declined to provide details about integrated tax profiling.
However, the sources said, it will involve collaboration of information gathered about tax payers through annual information reports (AIRs) regarding bank accounts, credit cards, mutual fund investment, purchase of property and share market to investigate tax evasion.
Chidambaram also said the government is emphasing on the complete computerisation of the I-T department.
The sources said once the computerisation is completed the department will have full information about tax payers regarding their income and expenditure pattern from various sources.
In the large tax units (LTUs), the Ministry is already collaborating information about excise, customs, service and income tax paid by corporates for better tax assessment.
The I-T department on an average receives 5 lakh applications for PAN every month. So far, 4.7 crore PANs have been issued.
The sources said biometric identification can provide extremely accurate, secured access to information.
Fingerprints as well as retinal and iris scans produce absolutely unique data sets when done systematically, said a senior Finance Ministry official.
Meanwhile, an extensive media campaign called 'One Person, One PAN' has been launched to encourage voluntary surrender of duplicate PANs.
The revenue department last fiscal identified 26 lakh PANs with 13 lakh persons, out of which around 11 lakh people have so far surrendered their duplicate PANs.
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