Budget 2019 proposes to make PAN, Aadhaar interchangeable; soon you can file ITR using either of these

Budget 2019 proposes to make PAN and Aadhaar interchangeable. As per the announcement, indiviudals who do not have PAN will soon be able to file their income tax return (ITR) just by quoting their Aadhaar number. In addition to that, those who do not have PAN can simply quote their Aadhaar number wherever PAN is mandatory to quote.

The move is aimed at improving tax compliance and to make the life of the taxpayer simpler. The Budget documents further proposed that mandatory quoting of PAN/Aadhaar in order to track high-value trasactions.

Venkatesh Narayan, National Leader, Tax Technology and Transformation, EY India, says, "Honourable Finance Minister in her maiden budget speech has laid considerable emphasis on technology to enable ease of compliance, eliminate taxpayer-department human interface and improve enforcement. On the Direct Tax side, the proposed interchangeability of PAN and Aadhaar is a welcome step. If indeed Aadhaar means ‘no need for PAN’, it means that individual tax payers need not keep multiple identifiers and is a step towards making Aadhaar a universal identifier."

As per current income tax laws, it is mandatory to quote PAN number without which ITR cannot be filed. In addition to that with effect from April 1, 2019 it is mandatory to quote Aadhaar number and link the same with PAN while filing ITR.