The government has once again extended the deadline for the linking of Aadhaar with PAN. This time, the last date to do so is 30 September 2019. An official statement said, ‘It has been reported in some sections of the media that those PANs which are not linked with Aadhaar number by March 31, 2019 may be invalidated. The matter has been considered by the Central government and now the cut-off date for intimating the Aadhaar number and linking PAN with Aadhaar is September 30, 2019 unless specifically exempted.’
Stating that the Aadhaar number should be quoted while filing income-tax returns from 1 April onwards, the government added: ‘Notwithstanding the last date of intimating/linking of Aadhaar Number with PAN being 30.09.2019, it is also made clear that w.e.f. 01.04.2019, it is mandatory to quote and link Aadhaar number while filing the return of income, unless specifically exempted.’ This is the sixth time the government has extended the Aadhaar-PAN linking deadline.
Given its population, the number of tax-payers is very less in India. Even the rich try to avoid paying income-tax and dodge the government in multiple ways. Hence, steps are being taken by the authorities to bring them under the tax bracket, and the move to link Aadhaar with PAN is one among them. Though critics allege that privacy is being put to risk due to these measures, financial discipline is a must to achieve important targets and steps like these are needed to make it a reality.