PAN 2.0 Project Approved

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the Income Tax Department’s Permanent Account Number (PAN) 2.0 Project, enabling technology-driven transformation of taxpayer registration services. PAN-related services that are spread across three different platforms: the e-Filing Portal, UTIITSL Portal, and Protean e-Gov Portal will be consolidated and provided through one single portal.

All matters pertaining to PAN and TAN, including application, updates, corrections, Aadhaar-PAN linking, re-issuance requests, as well as online PAN validation, will be taken up through the portal. Existing PAN card holders are not required to apply for a new PAN under the upgraded system or change the existing PAN, except in case of any update or correction.

It has been clarified that the PAN itself will be used as the ‘Common Business Identifier’ mentioned in the union budget. Further, the QR code is not a new feature, and it has been incorporated in the PAN cards since 2017-18. PAN holders having an old PAN Card without QR code have an option to apply for a new card with QR code in the existing PAN 1.0 eco-system as well as in the PAN 2.0. In addition, in PAN 2.0, with the improved systems logic for identification of potential duplicate requests and centralized and enhanced mechanism, the instances of one person holding more than one PAN would minimize.