Biometric PAN cards to arrive shortly
Press Trust of India / New Delhi July 17, 2007
All the new income tax payers in the country will soon begin to get biometric permanent account number (PAN) cards with enhanced security features like fingerprints or retinal scans, aimed at checking duplicate cards and better tax compliance.
"The process of eliminating about 13 lakh duplicate PAN cards is in last mile. Once that process is completed, which will happen shortly, we will set a date, after which all new PAN cards will only be biometric," Finance Minister P Chidambaram said after inaugurating a Chief Income Tax Commissioners conference.
When asked whether the date of launching biometric PANs could be October, he said, "it could be."
Referring to the fate of current PAN card holders, Chidambaram said, "they will be persuaded to switch over to biometric PAN cards in their own interest. The earlier PAN cards will, of course, remain valid."
Finance Ministry had set up an internal group to finalise the norms for introduction of biometric PANs.
The ministry is hoping to introduce iris-based biometric PAN cards to all new applicants once the present PAN data is updated.
Chidambaram also said it has been decided in the meeting that there will be "integrated 360-degree profiling of individual tax payers," declining to give details.
Sources , however, said it will involve collaboration of tax payers' information regarding bank accounts, credit cards, mutual fund investment, purchase of property and shares to investigate tax evasion.
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