Aadhaar-PAN Linking Extended To June 30 Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Taking into account the coronavirus crisis situation the country is in, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has extended Aadhaar-PAN linking date to June 30, 2020. “The Aadhaar-PAN linking will be extended to 30 June,” Sitharaman said in a press conference today (24 March, 2020).

This is among various other decisions announced to tackle the current situation. While the deadline had been extended many times earlier, many had not adhered to the deadline. And, till two days back, there was anxiety among the public on how to do it under the current situation, when they cannot get out of their houses.

Earlier, in a tweet, on Monday (March 16), the income tax (IT) department had said that the last date to link PAN with Aadhaar was March 31, 2020. It was also said that income taxpayers can link them by either via SMS or on the online portal of the IT department’s e-filling website.

However, with the lockdowns due to coronavirus, the government has revisited the decision. Now the government has extended the deadline to June 30, giving relief to many who had not adhered to the deadline or could not because of various reasons.

The deadline was extended twice in September and December last year. This time the income tax department was very serious about not extending the date for linking PAN card with Aadhaar card. The linking of Aadhaar with the PAN was also expected to help fintech startups to complete KYC without PAN cards.

It was also said that the PAN card of an individual would become inoperational if the deadline was not adhered to. According to the announcement, PAN cardholders would not be able to use it as proof for any financial transactions such as banking, investing, income tax returns and more, according to a Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notification dated February 13. It was also said that a penalty of INR 10K would be levied if the deadline was not adhered to.