Tax payers hit roadblock in Aadhaar-PAN linkage

Chennai: The Union government wants every taxpayer to link his or her Aadhaar with Permanent Account Number (PAN) to pay income tax returns, but it seems the I-T department is not ready for the change in terms of preparedness.

A new column – ‘name as per Aadhaar’ - was introduced in income tax forms to help link PAN and Aaadhar, but auditors still face major problem since only 10 per cent of their clients are able to link the two because of mismatch between the full name and name with initials of the persons, as most South Indians tend to avoid surname.

The mismatch between the names has become a major headache for auditors struggling to link Aadhaar with PAN. While PAN mentions full name of a person, the Aadhaar usually carries the name of the concerned with initials.

Auditors and taxpayers complain that I-T department did not update its software accordingly which has resulted in inconvenience to them. The deadline to link the two is July 1.

“The whole of Chennai will not be able to link the cards by the deadline if it goes at this pace. After we reported about the name mismatch issue, they introduced the column, which enables a person to link Aadhaar and PAN even if their initials and names do not match exactly. But there is an error each time I try to link,” Shanthi Priya, an auditor, told Deccan Chronicle.

Some auditors say that there is a delay in getting the OTP (one time password). “It is taking more than 10 minutes to receive OTP, so we are forced to start the whole process of linking again. The problem will worsen towards mid of June when more people come to produce financial statements,” said another auditor who is based out of Mylapore.

Income tax payers say despite changing the name, the error still occurs. Bhaskaran from Ullagaram said he waited for 48 hours to get the name in Aadhaar changed after an error occurred. “Even after the initials were exact, the problem remains,” he said, adding that authorities concerned should extend the deadline.

When contacted, an official from I-T department, “The policy makers might extend the deadline if the problem pertains. Now, everybody is in a confusion as Supreme Court has given a stay regarding Aadhaar being linked to income tax returns.”