Permanent Account Number (PAN) will on Friday (March 2) replace the Mutual Fund Identification Number (MIN), which was earlier this year made mandatory for mutual fund investments worth over Rs 50,000.

"MIN will be withdrawn from tomorrow and PAN will replace it as the sole identification number for mutual fund transactions from March 2," Association of Mutual Funds of India Chairman A P Kurien told PTI over phone from Mumbai.

The announcement comes just a day after Finance Minister P Chidambaram said in his Budget speech that the permanent account number (PAN) will become the sole identification number for all transactions in the securities market.

"Investors need to have PAN number and other documents under the KYC (know your client) norms of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act," the finance minister had said.

Those investors, who have already been allotted MIN, need not provide their PAN details afresh.

The only addition to the PAN, would be an alpha-numeric prefix or suffix to distinguish different kind of investments such as mutual funds, equity, debt and derivatives.

Now investors will now have to quote PAN for all financial transactions, irrespective of the quantum of investment. PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number issued by the income-tax department.

At present, quoting PAN is mandatory for investments of Rs 50,000 and above in mutual funds and IPOs. For instance, if an investor wants to invest in mutual funds, he will have to quote his PAN along with MIN as its prefix or suffix.

About 2,00,000 mutual fund investors are estimated to have already been allotted MIN, which was introduced in January as an enhanced KYC measure to comply with regulatory norms.

The Central Depository Services Ltd (CDSL), the country's second largest depository, had established a separate company for allotting MIN to investors.

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Additional inputs: Business Standard