Aadhaar-PAN linking: Congress Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan writes to PM to extend deadline by six months

With PAN card-Aadhaar linking deadline just 10 days away, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Tuesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to extend the deadline by six months and waive off the Rs 1000 fee.

The member of Parliament in his letter referred to a notification from the Department of Revenue, which asked people to link their Aadhaar card with their PAN card online against a payment of Rs 1000 till March 31, 2023, or else their PAN will become inoperative.

Citing that a lot of Indians live in remote areas with no internet access, he wrote, "I further request that a maximum number of Indians do live in extremely remote corners of the country where internet facilities are rarely available."

Ranjan said that people with limited knowledge about linking are falling prey to touts. "And unscrupulous touts have started extorting money as fees from these innocent citizens of rural India."

Chowdhury urged the central government to direct post offices to assist the people free of cost.

"In this regard, I earnestly request you to instruct the Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, to empower all Local and Sub Post Offices to help people get their PAN cards linked with their Aadhaar cards free of cost as well as extend the deadline till next six months," the Congress leader said in his letter to the prime minister.

Ranjan said that the situation was turning into a nightmare and that people were facing extreme misery because of it.

The last day to link PAN with Aadhaar is March 31, 2023.

The income tax department has said that if one fails to link their Aadhar with their PAN card before the deadline, their PAN will become inoperative.

(With inputs from PTI)