Centre indefinitely extends deadline for linking Aadhaar, PAN with bank A/cs

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday extended the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar and PAN with bank accounts indefinitely.

A notification to this effect was issued on Tuesday by the Department of Revenue under the Finance Ministry.

According to the notification, the words "submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, 2017" were now substituted by "submit the Aadhaar number, PAN or Form No 60 by such date as may be notified by the Central government."

Earlier, the government had made it mandatory to link bank accounts and PAN with Aadhaar by December 31.

While the 12-digit Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), PAN is allotted by the Income Tax Department. Form 60 is a declaration filed by an individual or a person (not being a company or firm) who does not have a PAN and who enters into any specified transaction.

Yesterday's notification by the Department of Revenue in the finance ministry effectively paves the way for extending the deadline for mandatory quoting of Aadhaar for activities like the opening of a bank account.

This is in line with the Centre last week informing the Supreme Court that it is willing to extend till March 31 the deadline fixed for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail various services and welfare schemes.

On December 7, the deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar was extended by three months to March 31, 2018.