8 Crores PAN Card Holders – Only 3 Crores returns
THE CAG has pointed out that Filing Rate and Non - Filing Rate, being assessed in modern tax administrations, has not yet been done in India. The Permanent Account Number (PAN) allotted to a taxpayer, is the unique identification number that helps track individual tax compliance. There were 807.9 lakh PAN cardholders as on 31 March 2009, of whom only 326.5 lakh assessees had filed their return of income relevant to the financial year 2008 - 09. This gap of 481.4 lakh assessees was considerably higher than the corresponding figure (by 10 lakh assessees) in 2007 - 08. The Board should identify the reasons for large - scale stop - filing or non - filing.