The Income Tax department's ambitious plan to link its PAN number database with Aadhaar has crossed the 50-lakh mark.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the policy-making body for the IT department, had launched the initiative of linking the two databases -- Permanent Account Number and Aadhaar -- late last year to start a safe and quick electronic regime for taxpayers when it comes to filing income tax returns and subsequent ensuring of a host of tax-related services.

"The PAN-Aadhaar linkage crossed the 50 lakh mark late yesterday. The number as of today stands at 50,57,016. The department wants these numbers to grow so that the full e-regime in the delivery of taxpayer services can be ushered in as soon as possible," a senior official said.

Also, the one-time password-based ITR filing system for taxpayers has crossed over 80 lakh e-verification mark. "The exact figure for e-verified ITRs stands at 83,55,337," the official said. The new e-filing system allows online verification of a persons' ITR by using either the Aadhaar number, internet banking or bank account along with email and mobile number, thereby ending the practice of sending paper acknowledgement to the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) of the department located in Bengaluru.

The online ITR filing portal of the department is available at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. According to the rules notified in this regard by CBDT in July last year, any taxpayer whose income is Rs 5 lakh or below per annum and has no refund claims can straightaway generate the Electronic Verification Code (EVC) for e-filing and validating their ITR through their registered mobile number and e-mail ID with the department.

They get a system generated one-time password (OTP) to validate their ITRs with the help of the Aadhaar number. This new measure has eliminated the need of sending the paper acknowledgement called ITR-V through post to the Bengaluru-based CPC of the IT department. "The Aadhaar database is also being used by the taxman to verify taxpayers credentials. It is planned to take these PAN- Aadhaar linkage as much high as possible," he said. #casansaar (PTI - DNA News)