If you logged on to Income Tax Department’s website to link your Aadhaar and PAN card, and were able to do so without a glitch, you’re one of the lucky ones. Given the scramble the July 1 ‘deadline’ is causing, people have been in a hurry to link the two documents - so much so that the income tax website is regularly crashing!
Many are under the impression that if they do not link their PAN cards to their Aadhaar cards, the former will become invalid from July 1. However, that is far from the truth.
As this Economic Times report explains it, linking the two is becoming mandatory from July 1, but if you do not link Aadhaar and PAN prior to this date, it will not automatically invalidate your PAN card. However, going by reports, your PAN card will become invalid if you don’t link it to your Aadhaar, but at a later date which has not yet been announced by the government.
A senior official from the I-T department also told PTI, “It has been made abundantly clear that no PAN, which is not linked to Aadhaar, will be cancelled from 1 July.”
Section 139AA of the Income-tax Act, which talks about the linking of the documents, says:
"Every person who has been allotted permanent account number as on the 1st day of July, 2017, and who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to such authority in such form and manner as may be prescribed, on or before a date to be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette: Provided that in case of failure to intimate the Aadhaar number, the permanent account number allotted to the person shall be deemed to be invalid and the other provisions of this Act shall apply, as if the person had not applied for allotment of permanent account number."
Note that the Section says, “on or before a date to be notified by the Central Government”, meaning that the unlinked PAN card will only become invalid only after a deadline which is yet to be set by the Centre. So, linking the PAN and Aadhaar cards will be mandatory from July 1, but it will not deem your PAN card invalid if you fail to do so.
Linking the two, however, is mandatory if you want to file your Income Tax Returns (ITR) online after July 1. Having an Aadhaar card is also mandatory if you want to apply for a PAN card after July 1.
What about your bank account?
There are also doubts people have about whether they will no longer be able to use their bank accounts if they don’t link their bank account to their Aadhaar card. However, that is also untrue.
The deadline for linking bank accounts to Aadhaar is December 31. If someone fails to do so, their accounts will be frozen, and can only be reactivated once Aadhaar details are provided.
“The money will be safe but the accounts will not be operational. Once the account holder shows the required documents they will be unfrozen,” an official from the finance ministry had told the media.
These reforms, according to reports, are part the government’s strategy to curb money laundering and black money. The move to make Aadhaar mandatory has come under severe criticism though, and the Supreme Court is yet to give its order on the same.