Although Aadhaar and PAN linking was made mandatory, according to income tax laws, from July 1, 2017, the government has pulled out a list which states the class of people who are exempted from linking the documents.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in a notification from May 11, 2017, clarified the class of individuals who will be exempted from this compulsory linking of PAN with Aadhaar card.
As reported by ET, CBDT has notified that Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act is not applicable to those belonging to the class of non-resident Indians (NRIs) as per the income tax laws, the ones who are not citizens of India, those who belong to the age group of 80 years and above, and residents of Assam, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir.
Further, this is applicable to the above list of individuals only if they do not possess an Aadhaar card or an Aadhaar enrolment ID.
Aadhaar is a 12-digit unique identity number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to residents after satisfying the verification process. Any individual, irrespective of age and gender, who is a resident of India, may voluntarily enrol to obtain Aadhaar number.
Persons willing to enrol have to provide minimal demographic and biometric information during the enrollment process which is totally free of cost. Aadhaar number is verifiable in an online, cost-effective way.
