In order to drastically ease the procedures for starting a new business in India, various Govt. departments have joined forces to make sure that both PAN (Permanent Account Number) and TAN (Tax Deduction Account Number) are allocated within 24 hours.
Earlier, PAN Card was issued after 15 days, and TAN card could have taken between 7-20 days, depending on various approvals.
Last year, Income tax department had promised that new PAN Cards would be now issued within 48 hours, which has now been further reduced to 24 hours. Considering that all transactions above Rs 2 lakh now require a PAN card, this is indeed an excellent decision to speed up the process and invite new entrepreneurs.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has also enabled usage of digital signatures to procure and activate both PAN and TAN Cards. Infact, PAN & TAN Card can now be issued based on Aadhaar card’s digital signatures, which will further reduce the time consumed in official formalities.
In order to accomplish this swift approvals and issuance of cards, various ministries and Govt. departments have decided to join force. To start with, MCA and IT dept. will now exchange data within themselves, and enable faster processing of applicants.
Chairman Atulesh Jindal said, “CBDT has agreed to seamless exchange of data with Ministry of Corporate Affairs to ensure that upon incorporation of a company by MCA the PAN and TAN number are allotted within a day. The process of getting a PAN or TAN has been fast-tracked for all category of taxpayers.”
The process to file application for PAN/TAN has also been made completely digitalized, and paper-less. As Aadhaar Card based e-Signatures are now accepted, the applicant need to apply with paper documents.
Atulesh further said, “They (taxpayers) can also file the application without any annexure using digital signature. Besides that, we have also introduced another facility, a convenient facility for those who do not have digital signature. They can file using Aadhaar-based e-signature facility,”
CBDT has also clarified that the e-Biz platform can be used effectively for filing tax returns, and for applying new permits and verifications.
As per the Income tax dept., those who are using e-Biz platform can now use digital signatures and go paperless.
e-Biz was launched in 2013, which acts as a single-window platform for getting approvals, verifications and permits from various Govt. departments, under one platform.
As of now, 20 Government services are included in the e-Biz platform, which includes:Industrial licence, employer registration, services from Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Reserve Bank of India, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organisation.
Interestingly, over 1 crore Aadhaar cards have been linked with PAN Cards on this e-Biz platform; and IT Dept. have flushed out 11 lakh PAN Cards using this system.
Its not working in Company cases. Nor the TAN nor the PAN.