New Delhi, April 9 (PTI): Individuals struggling to link their permanent account numbers (PAN) with Aadhaar because of differently spelt names can now simply upload a scanned copy of PAN to get the work done.

Besides, the tax department is planning to introduce an option on the e-filing portal through which taxpayers can choose to link Aadhaar without changing the name by opting for a one-time password (OTP), provided that the year of birth of the person matches in both documents.

Individuals can log on to the e-filing website of the income tax department, or NSDL, to link Aadhaar with PAN, but the seeding cannot happen if the name is differently spelt in the two cards - like use of full name in PAN and only initials in Aadhaar.

In such cases, individuals can log in to the Aadhaar website, request for a name change and upload a scanned copy of PAN card as supported proof. One has to just ensure that the registered mobile number (with the Unique Identification Authority of India) is active.

This option will hold good for people who have given short forms of their names or there are some spelling errors in the name provided in the Aadhaar card.

OTP option

There are also cases where individuals have got married and changed their surname and updated the same while getting the Aadhaar number, but it does not get reflected in the PAN documents.

In such and other name change cases, the tax department is planning to give the OTP option wherein the password will be sent to the Aadhaar-registered mobile number and the tax department, on its part, will match the year of birth of the taxpayer with the Aadhaar database.

Over 1.08 crore assessees have Aadhaar-linked PAN but the number is very low as there are over 25 crore PAN card holders, while Aadhaar has been issued to 111 crore people.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had through amendment to tax proposals in the Finance Bill for 2017-18 made Aadhaar mandatory for filing of income tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to curb tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards.

"We are also contemplating that when taxpayers with name discrepancy logs into the e-filing website for linkage, we will send OTP to the Aadhaar registered mobile number. The taxpayer can link PAN using the OTP. While generating the OTP, we will just check if the year of birth of the taxpayer in PAN card matches with the year given in the Aadhaar document," the official added.

The e-filing portal has already activated a functionality of linking PAN with Aadhaar.<>