Government rakes in INR 600 crore as penalties from taxpayers’ delay in PAN-Aadhar link

NEW DELHI — The government has collected over INR 600 crore as penalties from persons who failed to meet the deadline for linking their PAN with their Aadhaar card, the Parliament was told on Monday.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply, that the number of PANs not linked with Aadhaar, excluding exempted categories, is 11.48 crore as of January 29, 2024.

The deadline for linking PAN and Aadhaar was June 30, 2023.

The Income Tax Department had stated in its order that PAN cards will become inoperative if taxpayers fail to link their documents with Aadhaar within the deadline.

Moreover, no refunds would be made against such PANs. Failure to link PAN with the biometric document would also attract a higher TDS and TCS.

The PAN can be made operative again by paying a after paying a penalty late fee of INR 1,000.