Bhubaneswar, June 30: People are rushing to link their Aadhaar and Permanent Account Number (PAN) with the Union government making it mandatory for taxpayers from tomorrow.

While the official website of the income tax department, www.incometaxindia.gov.in, practically crashed owing to heavy traffic since last evening, the city's Ayakar Bhavan was packed with people trying to understand the implications of the move. Similar rush was also witnessed at the six permanent Aadhaar enrolment centres in the city.

"I was not aware of the new system. Some of my friends asked me last night whether I had made the link or not. So, I was awake the whole of last night trying to link them, but the website didn't open at all," said Patia resident Sweta Mishra, a corporate employee.

Besides, the rush of people at the income tax department website was so high that "Aadhaar link to PAN card" became the searching trend on Google.

The people who have incorrect details on either their Aadhaar or PAN faced more problems.

They had to place change requests to correct the details. This could be done either through the official websites, at aadhaar centres in the city or through post.

"I come to know about the last date of linking Aadhaar and PAN yesterday. Some of my details on my Aadhaar are incorrect. I am not aware of the online system for making a correction and so I went to the enrolment centre despite heavy showers today. Unfortunately, it couldn't be done since the centre was already handling a large number of queries," said Laxmi Sagar resident Nirakar Mohanty.

An Ayakar Bhavan official today said people were unnecessarily panicking.

"The government has not prescribed any deadline for linking the two IDs. It simply said that after July 1, the linking of the IDs will be mandatory for tax filing," said the official asking people not to panic.

Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act says: "Every person who has been allotted permanent account number as on the 1st day of July, 2017, and who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar number, shall intimate his Aadhaar number to such authority in such form and manner as may be prescribed, on or before a date to be notified by the Central Government in the Official Gazette."

"Provided that in case of failure to intimate the Aadhaar number, the permanent account number allotted to the person shall be deemed to be invalid and the other provisions of this Act shall apply, as if the person had not applied for allotment of permanent account number," the section further reads.

The official explained that since the central government did not notify any date in the official gazette, June 30 was not the last date for linking the two IDs.

"However, the Union government may soon notify a date, so it would be wise for every PAN holder to link the IDs on a priority basis," the official said.