Guwahati, June 25: Persons seeking a permanent account number (PAN) can now get it within two weeks as the Union government has authorised the UTI Investors Services Limited to process the allotment of PAN.

Addressing a news conference here today, income tax commissioner of the city A.M. Sangma said the decision to authorise the UTI firm for the task follows finance minister Jaswant Singh’s announcement in his budget speech that certain non-core activities relating to PAN would be outsourced.

Sangma said from July 1, any person seeking PAN could obtain the new form 49A from any of the income tax PAN service centres being set up by the firm at 21 stations in the Northeast, where the department has its offices. Each form will cost Rs 5. He, however, clarified that the income tax department would issue PAN.

Sangma said the PAN form would also be available on the Internet.

He said 4,13,637 people from the Northeast had received their PAN till the end of March this year. Of the 4,32,090 people who had applied for the number, 3,086 applications were found defective and 5,966 were duplicates.

Sangma said in order to eliminate bogus applications, the PAN application form (49A) had been changed to include proof of identity and address as mandatory requirements for applying for PAN.

Individual applicants will have to affix one recent colour photograph on the form. An amount of Rs 60 will have to be paid while submitting the application at the PAN service centres.

He said the UTI firm would print and deliver the PAN cards to the applicant’s address mentioned in the form. The company will also create a web-based query system from where the applicants can learn the status of the application.

Officials said income returns would not be accepted unless PAN was mentioned. The date for filing of returns has been extended to September 30 from July 31.