Will Government Allow PAN-Aadhaar Linking Facilities At Post Offices In Rural Areas? – News18

Indian citizens must link their PAN and Aadhaar cards, as per the instructions of the government. According to recent reports, the government is considering the facility of linking the two cards through post offices in rural areas. Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury had sent a plea to provide these services “free of cost.” The Union Finance Ministry forwarded the request to the ministry concerned. The government has deemed not paying the fee for the linking as inappropriate at this stage. Adhir Chowdhary sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance in March, in which he asked to provide card-linking facilities to the local and sub-post offices, free of cost.

According to Chowdhary, people in rural areas were being scammed and duped by middlemen in the name of the PAN-Aadhaar link. In that letter, he also asked to extend the deadline for the link. Pankaj Chaudhary, the Union Minister of State for Finance, gave a response on June 27, saying that the last date for linking the cards was fixed to be September 30 in 2019, which was extended from time to time. He further said, “Therefore any extension to the deadline is not feasible.” Pankaj Chaudhary added that exemption from paying the fee for the PAN-Aadhaar link would be unfair to the card holders, who have paid the prescribed fee for the link.

June 30, 2023, was the last date to link PAN and Aadhaar cards, according to the notification issued by the Ministry of Finance’s Department of Revenue. The fee payable for linking the cards is Rs 1000. If someone has failed to link their cards by this date, then the PAN card will become inoperative. Sebi has also asked investors to link their PAN cards. The reason for the linking of these two cards is that it is a way to de-duplicate the PAN database after it was found out that multiple PANs were given to one person and vice-versa.