12/04/11
The Indian government looks set to issue biometric Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards to taxpayers in an effort to combat the problem of fake and duplicate documents.
The move follows last year’s decision by the government to postpone the project to avoid duplication with the massive UIDAI scheme being rolled out.
Duplicate document issuance is a problem for the country. A 2010-2011 report on direct taxes from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India reveals that 95.8 million PAN cards were issued up to March 2010 compared with 34.09 million income tax returns filed.
According to local media reports, India’s Finance Ministry has now decided the cards should be optional to existing PAN card holders. These will contain two fingerprints from each hand as well as the facial image of each card holder.
Biometric PAN cards were initially proposed back in 2006, and the first new cards could be issued later this year, according to local reports.