Aadhaar-PAN linkage deadline extended till Mar 31, 2018

Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: The Central Government today extended the deadline for mandatory linking of PAN with the Aadhaar by three months to March 31, 2018.

This is the third such extension given to the people to link their PAN with the biometric identifier.

In a statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) under the Finance Ministry stated "It has come to notice that some of the taxpayers have not yet completed the linking of PAN with Aadhaar. Therefore, to facilitate the process of linking, it has been decided to further extend the time for linking of Aadhaar with PAN till March 31, 2018,"

The announcement comes a day after the Centre’s reply to a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra which is about to set up a five-judge Constitution bench next week to hear pleas seeking an interim stay order on the decision of mandatory Aadhaar linking.

Attorney General K K Venugopal who represents the Centre in this case had said the bench that the Centre was willing to extend the deadline of 31 December to 31 March next year for linking of Aadhaar with various services and schemes. He however had made it clear that the deadline for linking Aadhaar for availing of uninterrupted mobile services would stand till 6 next year since the date has been fixed by the apex court itself.

The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar previously was July 31 but was extended to August 31 and later to December 31, 2017.

As per information, by November, around 13 crore PANs out of 33 crore in total have been linked to the 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar.

If you have not linked your Aadhaar card with the PAN then here are five simple steps to do it:

1. Keep your Aadhaar and PAN numbers ready
2. If you have not registered on the Income tax e-Filing portal then register yourself. Then log in using your ID, password and date of birth.
3. A pop up window will appear, prompting you to link your PAN card with Aadhaar number. But if you have a pop up blocker active, then go to “Profile Setting” on the dashboard’s menu bar and then click on “Link Aadhar” option
4. Add the necessary details like name, your Date of Birth, gender as per the PAN details
5. Enter your 12 digit Aadhaar card number, then verify captcha and then click on “Link Aadhaar” button.
6. If your data is different than what is mentioned in the PAN then Aadhaar linkage may not be successful.
7. So make sure that your credentials match and once your validation is successful your Aadhaar will be linked to the PAN.
8. On submission, a final popup message will display that your Aadhaar card has been successfully linked to your PAN card.