PAN - A complete game changer

By Vijay Kumar

FIRST project in Government to outsource a public service against User charges

Over 6 crore PAN cards issued so far under the new process

Quantum change in standards of taxpayer service in respect of PAN -at no cost to Government

++ Time bound service with Facility to track status online and CRM support

++ Savings to Government of the order of Rs 400 crore, besides freeing sizable manpower in ITD for other work

Huge fillip to implementation e-governance initiatives in the department and outside

++ Computerised processing of returns of income

++ Tracking of high value financial transactions

++ A factor in large increase in tax collections from 2005 onwards

PAN has become a surrogate citizen identifier

++ in financial circles -Banks, MFs, DGFT, EPFO, Depositories, Telcos

++ Central Excise, Service Tax, VAT

++ Scores of citizen services unrelated to tax or even finance e.g. railway/air reservations, passport

++ UID Authority desires to partner with ITD

Source: a power point presentation by Mr. SS Khan, Former Member, CBDT.