Income Tax

Aadhaar Card PAN Card Link Status: How to Check Aadhaar PAN Card Link Status Online? 

The Government of India 2011 revealed a new identity document formally known as the Aadhaar card and established a new agency, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to control and issue new cards & its affairs. Generally, a 12-digit numeric number is a primary identity number for all Indian residents at f, free of cost and available for everyone. One should get his biometric and retina scanned at the time of applying for the Aadhaar card. The above-said authority (UIDAI) will be responsible for storing the data in a centralized form of database.  

According to the central government, the Aadhaar card will be mandatory to avail of numerous welfare schemes, including the  Public Distribution System of subsided food and Meal scheme (Mid-day) for school-going children and guaranteeing wage labour under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. 

The statutory body, i.e. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that collects data on individuals, was established in 2009 under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology so as to deliver financial and other subsidies, including the benefits of the services under the Aadhaar Act, 2016¹.  

The Home Ministry, in the year of 2017, made a statement and clarified the doubts in terms of citizenship proof for travellers travelling from India to Nepal and Bhutan that using an ID card for travelling purposes is not a valid identification document, and it will be considered only a proof of residence not a proof of citizenship.  

If we move prior to the enactment of this Act, UIDAI has functioned since 28 January 2009 as an attached office of the planning commission (now NITI Aayog). In the year of 2016, a money bill was presented before the parliament for legislative remarks on the Aadhaar card. The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India that formulated India’s Five-year Plans, among other functions in the country. During the first Independence Day speech in the year of 2014, PM Modi announced his intention to dissolve the above-mentioned planning commission and further replace it with NITI Aayog. The Independent Evaluation Office supported this with a report to the PM, including the recommendations to replace the Planning Commission as a control commission.  

Finally, in the month of January 2015, a cabinet resolution was passed by the parliament in order to formally replace the commission with NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India) and the first meeting was chaired by the PM itself.  

Prior Initiated Identity Cards Programs 

After the end of the Kargil war, the security analyst K. Subrahmanyam, under the Kargil Review Committee, which was formed to conduct a study on National security. In their several recommendation reports submitted to PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the villagers living in the border areas must issue an identity card on a priority basis, and such identity cards will be issued to all the people living near the border area.  

Later, in the year 2000, the Rangarajan Commission was established in order to rebuild and construct the statistical system of India under the Socio-economic statistics into a central based data of Indian citizens. The said commission also submitted its report and mentioned that a number of developed and developing countries, including China, have the data, including the Unique Identification Number of their citizens. The Unique Identification Number is majorly allotted to each citizen and would be a proof of identity on a variety of occasions/purposes. Currently, there are several kinds of identity cards issued by the government of India, including the electoral ID card, PAN card, passport, ration card, DL, birth and educational documents, etc. However, not a single system is equipped to handle a population figure that exceeds more than 1 billion within the country. Later on, the commission recommended specific points, and the Home Ministry made a note for issuing the identity card to all its citizens. The commission informed that the need and importance of centralized data for citizens, including a Unique Identification Number having many sorts of benefits, can be provided directly to our citizens, and such can improve the efficiency of administration within the country. If it gets implemented within the country, it must have some benefits to the statistical system within the country. Further, a group of ministers under the leadership of L.K. Advani recommended and examined all the possible implementations and stated in their report that a multi-purpose National identity card ’ project would be started soon, and the cards need to be issued firstly among the natives living within the border areas, then rest cards shall be issued to the entire part of the country. In the date of 2001, the External Ministry reported and suggested that a compulsory nationwide identity card must be issued. The External Ministry confirmed on the basis of their inputs that some people across the border have somehow obtained many Indian passports with various details, and the reason behind this was a lack of a computerized database among the passport centres within India. Later, in December month 2003, the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2003, presented by L.K. Advani, was introduced with the objective of providing its citizens with different rights of Indian origin, but the proposed bill also stated that the government of India must also make records of each citizen within the country and issue a National Identity card to them.

Thus, the UIDAI was finally established in the year of 2009 in the month of January, after the Planning Commission issued a notification. In the month of June, the co-founder of Infosys was appointed to chair the project by the concerned government. The rank of UIDAI chaired person was equivalent to the rank of cabinet Minister. Nilekani, in 2010, launched the logo and the brand name Aadhaar and stated that he would provide support to the legislation to protect the data collected by UIDAI.  

The UIDAI also published a list of 15 agencies that are qualified to provide training to engaged personnel in the enrolment process for an Aadhaar card. UIDAI came with 220 agencies qualified to take part in the enrollment process. Prior to this, the project was subjected only to the 20 states and with the LIC & State Bank of India as qualified registrars. Such announcement consists of various private establishments with a target of enrolling 40% of the population within two years. A team of 31,019 personnel and 155 enrolling training centres are required. An estimate of approx. 4,431 enrolment centres & 22,157 enrollment stations need to be formed.  

The UIDAI came up with an online verification system from where banks, telecom companies  & government itself can enter an Aadhaar number and can easily verify whether any person is an Indian resident or not.  

Our ex. PM Dr Manmohan Singh introduced an Aadhaar-linked system to directly benefit from transferring money to the bank accounts of the recipients in order to eliminate the leakages within the system. The same was introduced within 51 districts in the year 2013 and slowly expanded within the whole nation.  

Reason for Aadhaar Card behind Disputed Nature  

There were so many questions placed on record, likewise, Whether the parliament was competent to pass the Aadhaar Act as a Money bill, whether maintaining records of biometric data violated the Right to Privacy & Whether it would be correct enough and justified to make the Aadhaar card important in order to avail various subsidies and benefits and is it not violating the rights of equality and dignity under section 7?  

The scheme of Aadhaar was challenged before the Apex Court of India by a retired judge of Karnataka High Court, namely Justice K.S. Puttaswamy. In his challenging petition, he mentioned several objections likewise- There is no such place for proper & adequate privacy safeguards. Any private entity can request for Aadhaar authentication subject to the regulation by the UIDAI. Having no checks on the power of the government to use such collected biometric data.  

State’s social sector schemes are fundamental rights, and the entitlement guaranteed to individuals by the state itself does not violate these fundamental rights. It should not be made limited, if in any case, including a failure of individuals to supply or produce the unique identification number only it is applying for benefits.  

The Hon’ble Court, in its judgement in the year of 2018, clearly upheld the Aadhaar Act as constitutionally valid and held that the Act is efficiently passed by the parliament, although in terms of the Money Bill. The court of law also mentioned that the said Act does not violate the fundamental rights under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21. 

Direct Benefit Transfer 

The Aadhaar card is linked to several welfare schemes of the government and also with the unemployment schemes, such as the domestic LPG & MGNREGA schemes. Under this direct benefit scheme, the subsidy/welfare money is directly transferred into the accounts of the recipients whose Aadhaar cards are linked. Prior to this, the government, under the direct benefit scheme, usually transferred money via using the NEFT process, which basically did not depend on an Aadhaar card. In the year of 2011, the Petroleum Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the UIDAI with future prospects that this pact/agreement would easily eliminate the loss of subsidized kerosene & LPG. Later, the government of India, in a press release informed, issued Aadhaar-linked MGNREGS cards.  

Under this policy related to domestic LPG, the customers should buy LPG at full price, and later, the subsidy will be directly credited to their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts from the end of the government. The said scheme of the central government was put to a halt by the Supreme Court of India. Later, the government of India formed a committee to review” Direct Benefits in terms of LPG,” and the same scheme was later modified and reviewed as  PAHAL. Now, the subsidy amount will be directly credited to the account of the purchaser even if they do not have an Aadhaar number. As per records, the PAHAL scheme covered 118.9 million out of 145.4 million active LPG consumers, as stated by the Petroleum Ministry and termed as a Game changer for India regarding the DBT policy by the Finance Ministry, etc.  

Facts Regarding PAN Card 

Prior to the arrival of PAN cards in the country, the taxpayers were previously given a GIR number. It’s a manual system number which was unique only under the supervision of an evaluating officer. Although the figure or the number was not unique within the country, it creates larger possibilities of error in the sense of miscalculation and numeric mistakes as several incidents were previously identified at the time of calculation of Income tax by the authorities. 

The approach to introduce and issue a PAN card within the nation was initially formulated by the government of India in the year of 1972 under section 139A of the Income Tax Act 1961. Pan card was initially optional for the taxpayers, and later, in the year 1976, it was made mandatory by the government.  

Understanding a PAN Card

A PAN card is basically a 10-digit alphanumeric number issued by the Department of Income Tax. This card is allotted in the form of a laminated plastic material card by the authority.  

Necessity of PAN Card 

PAN card helps all the concerned departments to recognize and identify all linked transactions of the PAN holder. Such transactions may include tax payments, TDS/TCS credits, returns on income tax, specific transactions, etc. It helps in getting information regarding PAN holders matching with various investments, borrowings and other economic activities, etc.  

Process To Get A PAN Card 

• Any person is entitled to get a PAN card if his/her total income or the income of any other person with respect to that he is assessable during the year exceeds the maximum amount not chargeable to tax.  
• Any Charitable trust to furnish Income tax return under Section 139(4A) of the Income Tax Act.  
• Any individual carrying any business or any profession having a gross sale or turnover exceeded its maximum limit of five lakh rupees in any year.  
• It is also mandatory for those persons who have an intention to enter into financial transactions where it is mandatory to get specific, so required accordingly.  
• All non-resident individuals and associated persons must apply for a PAN if any financial transaction that they entered or are associated with has raised the limit of Rs. 2,50,000. 

Need To Know Under Which Transaction PAN Is Compulsory? 

Mentioned below is the list of various transactions where the mentioning of a PAN card is mandatory for every individual except such transactions were completed or done by the Central and state governments and their Consular offices.  

• Sale or Purchasing of any motor vehicle or two-wheeled vehicles.  
• Opening a bank account with a bank or a co-operative bank. 
• Requesting for a Credit card or Debit card process.  

• Opening of any demat account, including depository, participant, custodian related to securities or any entity related to SEBI.  
• Making payment in cash exceeding INR 50,000 against a bill at once to a hostel or any restaurant. 
• Making payment exceeding an amount of INR 50,000 related to travelling to board or making payment to purchase a foreign currency at a time. 
• Making payment exceeding INR 50,000 to purchase a Mutual Fund unit. 
• Making payments to RBI itself exceeding INR 50,000 in order to acquire the issued bonds by RBI, etc.  

Applying For PAN Card 

UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services Limited (UTIITSL) & National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) are authorized by the Income Tax department to carry out the PAN service centres. These two bodies, under the Income-tax authority, created and formed several PAN Service Centers & TIN facilitation centres at different locations within the prime cities of the country, also known as PAN applying centres. Any person under form (49A/49AA) with supporting documents can easily apply for a PAN card application after paying a specified fee to the application centres. Accordingly, in Section 139AA, each individual eligible to get Aadhaar must specify his Aadhaar number within the form of a PAN card application.  

The criteria mentioned under Section 139AA will not apply to any individual who does not have an Aadhaar Enrollment number and resides within the State of Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, including Meghalaya. It will not apply to non-residents according to the Income Tax Act of 1961. Or aged 80 years or more or, a super-senior citizen, or not a country citizen. All these above-mentioned persons are not required to mention or notify their Aadhaar Number in the PAN application form. It must be kept in mind that a citizen of India will follow form 49A while a non-citizen, including a foreign company, will follow form 49AA to get their PAN card from the government. The person willing to get a PAN card must provide two recent coloured passport photographs in the said form along with the documents of identity proof, address and date of birth. Etc.  

PAN Card Importance  

PAN is used as a legal identity verification and photo for getting a gas connection, opening a bank account, and operating other financial operations. It is mandatory in order to stop fraud and identify money laundering within the country. In order to deposit cash of INR 50,000 on a regular basis in a bank, the PAN card has now become mandatory. A fixed deposit of more than INR 50,000 requires a PAN card to be produced in the bank. In order to avail of the credit or debit card facilities of banks, a PAN card now became necessary to provide. Several applications get rejected by the banks due to a lack of furnishing the PAN card or maybe the factors included that directly influence your credit history score. PAN is necessary for applying all loan application processes. If any immovable property value exceeds the amount of five lakhs, the PAN card of both the buyer and seller is required under law for any type of property, either for sale or purchase. If there are joint owners of any property, then there is a need to share the PAN cards of all owners. A PAN card is required at the time of buying any jewellery that costs more than five lakhs. Also required for opening a Post office deposits of more than INR fifty thousand.  

PAN data are also required when opening Post office deposits in excess of Rs. 50,000. Etc.  

Income Tax Return All individuals and entities eligible under tax and need to file their returns. A PAN card becomes mandatory while filing, and therefore, it’s a unique reason beyond the individual and entities used to apply for a PAN card. It also serves as a valid identity proof, while another card also serves the same as identity proof. It is also to be noted that if any individual or any entity has not yet linked their bank account with a PAN card, then the annual interest on saving deposits of more than INR 10,000, then the concerned bank, instead of a 10% TDS deduction, will deduct upto 30%. While carrying any business or any establishment, companies need to get a PAN card mentioned in the name, and the TRN number can only be obtained after getting the PAN number in the name of the entity. 

A Close Difference View On Aadhaar & PAN Card  

Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issue a random 12-digit number to the people of India after going through a well-verified verification process that has been formulated by the said authority. Any person with respect to any age, gender, or caste, as a resident of India, can apply for an Aadhaar card and can get their Aadhaar number. Interested persons at the time of applying for an Aadhaar card need to provide minimal information regarding their demographic and biometric information during the process of applying for an Aadhaar card, which is free of cost and initiated by the Government of India under UIDAI. An individual can get only a single Aadhaar card, and for de-duplication, only a single Aadhaar card will be generated as uniqueness is achieved through the process of demographic and biometric de-duplication.  

The approach behind initiating the facility of unique identification by the government of India is to provide various subsidies, benefits and services directly reaching their citizens by using the unique identification Aadhaar number.  

PAN Card – Permanent Account Number is a 10-digit unique identification alphanumeric number consisting of both the alphabets and numbers used for identification or to identify the taxpayers in India. It’s a computer-based identification system that includes all the information regarding the tax recorded against each PAN number. The PAN is also unique in nature and provided differently to each and every taxpayer in India, allotted by the income tax authority of India. A PAN card is important when opening any bank account, filing income tax, requesting a loan from the banks, requiring gas connections, selling or purchasing property, tracking the inflow and outflow of money, receiving any tax refunds, etc. Under section 139A of Income-tax, it is mandatory for individuals who pay taxes or carry any business whose yearly turnover exceeds 5 lakhs; all kinds of firms, entities, trusts, etc., including the minor, should apply for a PAN card.  

How To Know Your Aadhaar & PAN Linked Already? 

Both the Aadhaar card and the PAN card are mandatory for Indian citizens. People living in the territory of India must apply for Aadhaar and PAN cards to avail of the various subsidies, benefits and services directly reaching them from the end of the central/state government. 30 June 2023 was the last date to link your Aadhaar card with the PAN card; till today, the government of India has neither released any press report extending the dates accordingly. However, the central government has given many relaxations in terms of days for the citizens of India to link their Aadhaar card with their PAN card to stay PAN card active. In case your Aadhaar card is not linked with the PAN card, then you need to link together after paying the penalty of INR 1000 after 30 June 2022. Otherwise, your PAN card will become inoperative.  

It’s quite possible for many people that their Aadhaar and PAN card is already attached together. Basically, there are two steps to check out either your Aadhaar card & PAN card attached to each other. 

Without Log In to the Income Tax Portal

Visit the website http://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/.

Within the quick link option, click on ‘link Aadhaar status, your PAN number and Aadhhar number and press on the ‘View Aadhaar status” button.

You will get a message showing your link UID card status will display on successful validation. And suppose if your Aadhaar card is linked with your PAN card, then you will get a message showing ‘Your Aadhaar is already linked.’

In case your Aadhaar link with PAN card request is in progress, then you will get a message displaying on the window that “Your Aadhaar-PAN link request sent to UIDAI for its validation. 

Get Know Your Aadhaar PAN Card Link Through the Income Tax Portal 

 Simply log into the Income Tax e-filing Portal. Visit the dashboard showing on the homepage and just click on the ‘Link Aadhaar Status’ option. You can also visit my profile option and view the ‘Link Aadhaar Status’ option. As your Aadhaar get linked with your PAN card, then the Aadhaar number will be showing, and if the Aadhaar has not yet been linked with the PAN card, then ‘Link Aadhaar Status” will be displayed accordingly.  

When your request to link Aadhaar with a PAN card is pending validation, you need to check the status bar later.  

A Direct Link To Add Aadhaar & PAN Card  

Visit the direct link https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/foservices/#/pre-login/link-aadhaar-status and enter your PAN card and Aadhaar card details to view the link Aadhaar Status. Further, the linkage of the UID and PAN card will be shown on the window.  

To Know the Aadhaar & PAN card Link status via SMS 

Type SMS – UIDPAN <12 digit Aadhaar number> < 10 digit PAN number>. 

Forward SMS on ‘567678’ or ‘56161’ 

& Wait till the government service responds to you.  

You will be shown a message that your Aadhaar is linked with the PAN card, and then you will receive a message that ‘Your Aadhaar is associated with your PAN card under Income Tax.’ 

& if it is not linked, then a reverse message will be obtained in your phone; likewise,’ Your Aadhaar is not linked with PAN card under Income tax .’ 

Conclusion 

Basically, the governments of any country are actively working for their citizen to provide them with a welfare scheme and a safe, healthy environment for their all-round development in terms of socio-economic development. Our country after the war, we thought to create a centrally based data system, like many developed nations, in order to save our country from disturbing elements. The safety and security of our country are very important; therefore, the government introduced the concept of the Aadhaar card and later linked it with the PAN card. Formally, we have Acts that simplify and clarify that- Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act clarifies that taxpayers having an Aadhaar card must need to link it with the PAN card. Therefore, the government of India, under several press notifications, made it compulsory for all its taxpayers to associate their Aadhaar cards with PAN cards. Failing to do so, a sum of penalty INR 1000 will be charged by the government of India in order to get it linked. Otherwise, taxpayers failing to complete the process will carry an inoperative PAN card. In order to avail ourselves of several direct benefits from the government of India, we need to link our Aadhaar and PAN cards, etc.

FAQs

Read our Article: RBI allows NBFCs, PSOs to apply for Aadhaar e-KYC Authentication License

1. https://uidai.gov.in/en/legal-framework/aadhaar-act.html