Taxpayers panic as linking the number to PAN was a must despite a Supreme Court order

On Saturday, as the deadline for the filing of income tax returns for the previous assessment years closed in, there was panic and helplessness among those without Aadhaar. The filing of return was not possible without linking PAN to Aadhaar despite the recent Supreme Court order, a High Court judgment and an internal circular, said activists and chartered accounts.

“It has created much trouble for those who have yet not enrolled for Aadhaar,” a senior chartered accountant in Delhi said.

“They must extend the deadline and clarify because confusion has been created by them. They should have brought in changes to their computer system. It is an urgent need,” said an RTI activist, Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd), who has been over the past few days reaching out to various officials asking them to remove the compulsory linking of Aadhaar to PAN.

CBDT circular

Activists and chartered accountants point out that on March 27, the Central Board of Direct Taxes issued a circular saying that the March 31 deadline had been extended and that the “time for linking PAN with Aadhaar” was now June 30.

They cited a case in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, filed by advocate Pardeep Kumar, in which the court said: “Mr Satya Pal Jain, the learned Additional Solicitor-General of India appearing on behalf of the respondents, states that the time for linking the Aadhaar card with PAN card has been extended up to 30.6.2018 and as a result thereof the system would accept the petitioner’s return without the Aadhaar card.”

However, I-T authorities have been telling those who enquired with them that this exemption was specific to the petitioner.

Girish Mittal, who did not have Aadhaar, said he had been reaching out to various officials but couldn’t file his IT return.

“I have been wanting to file my return but the system does not accept it without Aadhaar,” Mr. Mittal told The Hindu. “They are interpreting the High Court judgment to say that the relief was only to a single person. The Supreme Court has not specified anything about the PAN link to Aadhaar but has generally relaxed the deadline for such services. Many of us would be defaulters tomorrow,” he said. A senior CBDT official told The Hindu: “It is very possible that people are still being asked to link their Aadhaar before March 31.” He said the IT Department officials were originally instructed to push to link PAN with Aadhaar for all taxpayers by the deadline.