Calcutta, July 27: The insurance regulator has made it mandatory for policyholders to quote their permanent account numbers if they are paying an annual premium of Rs 1 lakh or more on a single policy. The notification comes into effect from August 1.

“All insurers are advised to collect PAN from persons purchasing insurance products where the contracted annual premium payable, per policy basis, exceeds Rs 1 lakh,” the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority said.

The move, which insurers say is part of a Know-Your-Customer drive, also aims at curbing money laundering.

Insurance policies, particularly the single-premium unit-linked plans, are often used to evade tax as the maturity value or the withdrawals are tax-exempt.

This explains the high growth rate of single-premium policies. Premium income from such policies was 38 per cent of all individual schemes sold in 2006-07.