In a crackdown on duplicate Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards, the income tax department is likely to deactivate the PANs which are not linked with the Aadhaar number of the user by September 30.

Over 20 crore out of a total of 44 crore PAN cards are yet to be linked to respective Aadhaar numbers. "So far 24 crore PANs have been linked. We suspect that a large number of the PAN cards would be bogus or duplicate. Many people without any taxable income possess PAN card, which is not required," said a senior official, adding that the government wants to curb the use of PAN card as an identity card.

Many cases of tax evasion using duplicate PAN cards have come to the light of the tax authorities. PAN cards issued to non-users are increasingly being used to carry out tax evasion.

The taxpayers in Assam and Meghalaya are, however, exempt from the requirement of linking PAN with Aadhaar.

Linking of Aadhaar and PAN has become mandatory after the Aadhaar judgement came in July 2017. "Maximum number of PAN-Aadhaar linkage has been done in the past one year. We expect more people to comply with the fresh deadline. Many taxpayers had raised concerns over their inability to link due to a lengthy procedure of name correction. To address the problem, we extended the last date for PAN-Aadhaar linking to September 30," the official said.

Earlier, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had issued a notification as per which the last date to link the PAN with Aadhaar is September 30. Taxpayers wouldn't be able to file their income tax returns for the current assessment year if PAN is not linked with Aadhaar.

Though the date for linking the two numbers has been extended until September 30 from March 31, the returns can only be filed upon linking PAN and Aadhaar.

The deadline for filing income tax returns is July 31. After that, the returns can be filed until September along with a late fee. However, in both cases, the PAN-Aadhaar linkage is a pre-requisite for filing returns.

The taxpayers wouldn't be allowed to file income tax returns after September 30, the deadline for linking Aadhaar with PAN.

"However, any further extension of the deadline can not be ruled out. It will be known only closer to the date," said a source in the I-T department.

PAN-Aadhaar seeding can be done online through the I-T department's e-filing website incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in by clicking on 'link Aadhaar' The user can also avail SMS facility for linking the two.

As per section 139 A of the Income Tax Act, if your PAN is not linked with Aadhaar within the stipulated timeframe, it will become invalid. The Supreme Court had upheld the mandatory linkage of PAN-Aadhaar. #casansaar (Source - DNA INDIA)