PAN card linkage with Aadhar: How punctuations, initials are a virtual nightmare

Read what are the few teething troubles facing the the Aadhaar-PAN card linkage.

New Delhi: The government's decision to make Aadhar card mandatory for filing of income tax returns and compulsorily linking it with the PAN card has left many frustrated, a Times of India report says. The issue has come in the form of initials and punctuations that often form a person's name -- Aadhar doesn't recognise special characters like PAN does.

Surnames with special characters such as D'mello, D'souza and so on, face linking issues. Similarly, people from South India are facing problems since a number of them keep their father and town or village name as their second initial. Such names are resulting in a 'mismatch' and the system refuses to accept it -- big trouble for people who want to file their tax returns and link their PAN card with Aadhar.

It would be near impossible to change their name on the PAN card, for, it would mean changing their names on several other documents - informing the banks, submitting fresh KYCs, informing the insurance companies and so on.

Aadhar number is now being used for opening bank accounts, transfer of subsidies, for biometric-based digital payments, for hassel-free passport services, free LPG connections, rail ticket booking and getting a new SIM card. On Wednesday, the Central government asked information technology major Wipro to come up with reports and to develop a blueprint for Aadhaar-based biometric access to flight passengers at all airports across the country.

Over the past few years, the Centre has linked Aadhaar to a growing list of subsidies and schemes. Recently, the ministry of human resource development had announced that the midday meal would no longer be free for those children without an Aadhaar card. However, the government currently has no proposal to link Aadhaar numbers with railway passes.

With Aadhaar card connected to the PAN card, and effectively with bank accounts, the government will be now able to track the income and expenditures of millions of Indians each time there is a transaction that involves a bank account.

Until now, about 111 crore Aadhar cards have been issued.

OneIndia News