Good news! The government has extended the last date to link your PAN with the Aadhaar card to 31 December. The Centre had announced on 30 August that the deadline for mandatory Aadhaar to avail social benefits was extended to December 3, but did not clarify on the PAN-Aadhaar link until now.
The Supreme Court’s verdict on privacy has no bearing on the requirement, UIDAI Chief Executive Officer Ajay Bhushan Pandey had said on 25 August. Pandey’s clarification assumed significance in light of a landmark verdict by the apex court that privacy is a fundamental right and an intrinsic part of right to life and personal liberty.
Asked about the implication of the Supreme Court ruling on the linking of Aadhaar and PAN, Pandey had said:
There also, linking of PAN to Aadhaar is mandated by an amendment to the Income Tax Act... the linking will continue under that Act and law. There is no change.
Pandey said various deadlines that have been prescribed, be it under provision of the Aadhaar Act, Income Tax Act, or money laundering rules, would “have to be adhered to” as “those laws are valid.”
The UIDAI CEO added that the Aadhaar Act protected the privacy of people as a fundamental right and its provisions provided safeguarding of personal data and how such data could be used.
The data will not be shared without the consent of the person. So there are a number of privacy protection provisions built into the Aadhaar Act itself.
He noted that core biometric could never be shared with anyone for any reason whatsoever, except in circumstances such as national security, and such cases too had to be cleared by a committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
The Income Tax Department had earlier extended the date of filing tax returns to 5 August and reminded tax payers that returns would not be processed until the Aadhaar was linked to the PAN.
According to a Times of India report, sources in the IT Department had said enough time had been provided, and the deadline would not be extended further. The deadline had initially been extended as several taxpayers complained that they could not link the two identification numbers.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on privacy triggered questions about how the verdict might affect the Aadhaar.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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