Get PAN CARD, pay taxes through your smartphone shortly

NEW DELHI, INDIA: You may soon be able to get a permanent account number in minutes and also pay income tax through your smartphone.

As part of its drive to make life easy for taxpayers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes is working on issuing PAN on a real-time basis using Aadhaar's e-KYC facility, which allows an individual to verify his or her details such as address using biometric identification features like thumb impressions.

"If a SIM can be issued through e- KYC, then the same can be done for PAN," said an officer adding that the process may be crunched to five-six minutes from two-three weeks at present. While the number will be issued, the card will be delivered later.

The CBDT and the ministry of corporate affairs have already tied up to issue PAN to new companies incorporating through a combined form in four hours. The idea, again, is to move to real-time issuing of PAN, which will also become the business identification number for companies.

Separately, the tax department is developing an app that will help you pay taxes online and perform a host of other services such as apply for PAN or track your returns. While the department is offering several services online through its portal, the app is expected to make life simpler for seniors as well as young taxpayers.

The two projects are being done in-house with the directorate of systems coordinating with CBDT, said sources.