PAN 2.0 Gets Approval, Will Bear an Expense of 1435 Crores

A cabinet committee of the Union government has given approval to the ‘PAN 2.0’ project. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave the approval on November 25, chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

The project will see an expenditure of about 1435 crore rupees. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister was reportedly said that the PAN card will now have a QR code. Specific details on what the project will do are not in the public domain so far.

PAN stands for ‘Permanent Account Number’, which is a 10-digit identifier issued to persons by the Income Tax department. The tenchnology-intense project will re-engineer the business processes of taxpayer registration services . Current PAN and TAN systems will see upgradation. The PAN validation service, along with “core and non-core” allied activities will be brought under an umbrella.

The government undertakes the project with an aim of establishing the PAN as a common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies.

According to the government, PAN 2.0 Project will, enable “technology driven transformation of taxpayer registration services”. The government claims that this will have many benefits including an easy access and speedy service delivery with improved quality, single source of truth and data consistency, eco-friendly processes and cost optimization.

No Worry for Existing PAN Card Holders

The authorities have confirmed that existing cardholders need not worry. The government's initiatives of PAN Card up gradation will not burden the present 78 crore PAN cardholders. They will receive enhanced cards featuring QR codes at no additional charge.