The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : 1.26 lakh duplicate PAN cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 29, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

1.26 lakh duplicate PAN cards

N. Rahul

TALKING TOUGH: Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Andhra Pradesh region, D.V. Dharmik. — PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

HYDERABAD: The Income-Tax Department has identified 1.26 lakh duplicate permanent account number (PAN) cards in the hands of 57,000 persons in the State.

It has asked holders of multiple PAN cards to surrender them by December 31 this year or pay a penalty of Rs. 10,000 per instance. There are 28.45 lakh PAN cardholders in the State.

Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax, Andhra Pradesh region, D.V. Dharmik told The Hindu that in Hyderabad alone as many as 25,000 persons were holding duplicate PAN cards. The department was writing to them to surrender the cards.

If they responded positively, the cards would be cancelled according to their choice. Otherwise, officials would use their discretion while cancelling the cards of individuals who hold more than one after December 31, he warned.

Mr. Dharmik said he could not explain at this stage as to how such a large number of duplicate cards had gone into circulation. It might have happened inadvertently and deliberately.

First, it appeared to be a result of the delay in issuing the cards when PAN was made mandatory for individuals in 1998.

Taxpayers who did not receive their cards initially applied to the department again.

Tax evading tactic?

Two cards got released during computerisation of data if the entries in the two application forms were different in terms of spelling or style of writing names and addresses.

The second reason for holding duplicate cards was obviously to conceal income for the purpose of evading tax. The cardholders carried out businesses, entered into contracts and traded in the stock market under two different PANs.

Mr. Dharmik attributed the delay in issue of cards to the Government's decision to change the series of PAN. Initially, the cards were issued in a particular series but later the Government introduced the 10-digit number that was now being followed with some modifications.

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