The Centre has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with Permanent Account Number (PAN) before March 31, 2023. If a person fails to meet the March 31 deadline, their PAN will become inoperative, meaning they will not be able to file their income tax return, carry out NSE of BSE transactions or perform a range of banking services.
However, there are certain people and category who do not have to mandatorily link their PAN to Aadhaar. As per 2017 notification issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with PAN does not apply to four category. Here’s what these category are:
- Residents of the states of Assam and Meghalaya and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir
- Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) as per the Income Tax Act 1961
- Anyone who was of the age of 80 years or more at any time during the previous year
- Individuals who are not citizens of India
If you fall in any of the above category, you do not have to link your PAN with Aadhaar before March 31 this year. For other taxpayers, the linking is mandatory. The Aadhaar-PAN linking was free before March 31, 2022. A fee of Rs 500 was imposed from April 1, 2022 and was later increased to Rs 1,000 from July 1, 2022.