Biometrics for PAN – Income Tax invites bids
The Income Tax department uses Permanent Account Number (PAN) to identify its taxpayers and it is also used as a common business number by several departments of the central government. Till date the Income Tax department has issued around 46 million PANs and around 500,000 new PANs are allotted every month. The interface with PAN applicants is managed by two service providers, viz. M/s National Securities Depository Limited and M/s UTI Technology Services Limited, who operate approximately 2000 front offices for PAN services across the country.
Now they want to use biometric features, such as finger prints, iris or retina images, before allotting PAN to prevent allotment of more than one PAN to any one person. So they arte inviting offers from organizations engaged in the business of providing biometric solutions for identification purposes and having requisite experience
The department wants to ensure that the proposed solution should be cost effective and should not lead to long queues of applicants at the front offices.