PAN 2.0 sounds good but will it end fraud through impersonation?

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs earlier this week approved a plan of India’s Income Tax Department to roll out its PAN 2.0 project. This aims to streamline all services related to our Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) and simplify website access for individuals and companies.

One big step under the plan is to unify the three different platforms currently in use into one. This will offer easy access to these services for holders of these 10-digit unique alphanumeric numbers. Right now, applicants for a new PAN number need to apply on the UTIITSL portal, but for other tax-related matters, like finding out who one’s tax assessing officer is, one needs to visit the e-filing portal.

Then there is also the Protean e-Gov portal for PAN-related matters, which seems to duplicate some of the services available on other platforms. For most services in general and private ones in particular, choice is good. But not for taxation, going wrong on which could have such serious consequences that there should never be any scope for confusion.

Yet, taxpayers face a befuddling variety of interfaces even for simple services, with little clarity over which one is for what. The PAN 2.0 project, therefore, is a welcome initiative. Once its unified platform is in place, it will serve as a one-stop shop for all PAN-related matters, which would address many of our troubles.