Check on duplication of PAN

The income tax department has begun an exercise to identify cases where more than one permanent account number has been issued to the same person.

According to revenue department officials, of the 36 million PANs issued so far, duplication has occurred in around 3-5 per cent cases.

How to get the new PAN card

"There are over 10 lakh (1 million) PANs that have been duplicated. We have introduced a facility in the income tax department website which allows people with more than one PAN to submit their details to the department.

"There is no plan to invalidate such PANs. However, such persons will be encouraged to use just one PAN," officials told Business Standard.

To rid the PAN database of this problem by September is one of the objectives of the Central Board of Direct Taxes for the current financial year.

According to officials, instances of more than one PAN allotted to the same person had occurred on account of some PANs being issued manually and deficiencies in the software system, which did not sound a warning about a PAN even if information provided by an individual was similar, they said.

In addition to the online facility, the department has also opened a call centre or a helpline facility called the aaykar sampark kendra where PAN-related queries are attended to.

Officials said the department would also monitor cases of PAN being issued against bogus names or duplicate PANs being misused.