Biometric coding for PAN cards
The income tax department is contemplating enhancing security features in Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards by introducing biometric identification and coding that will also help in checking against duplicate cards, according to the Mumbai Chief Commissioner K. Venkataramani.
‘Though the concept is in the nascent and incubation stage, it will weed out the existence of duplicate PAN cards,’, he said addressing a news conference.
‘Biometric identification can provide extremely accurate, secured access to information. Fingerprints as well as retinal and iris scans produce absolutely unique data sets when done systematically’
The IT department had as many as 158,427 out of a total of 323,699 PAN cardholders in the Mumbai circle alone having ‘duplicate’ PAN cards. He wanted that the duplicate cards be surrendered by 31st December and after that there could be a penalty up to Rs. 10,000/- --- for each use of a duplicate card.