Over 1 million PANs deactivated: How to check if your card is still working

A person can not be registered with more than one PAN number

Today's Paper : More than one million permanent account numbers (PANs) were deleted or PAN de-activated by the government, in a move to check fake identities. Reportedly, as on July 27, 11,44,211 duplicate PANS have been identified, said Indian Express. PAN is the key identifier of taxable entity and aggregator of all financial transactions undertaken by one person.

As per government rules, a person cannot be registered with more than one PAN number. The Indian Express reported that the government also detected fake PAN cards which were allotted to non-existing individuals or to people who have submitted false information about themselves.

How to check if your PAN is still active
1. Visit the Income Tax e-filing portal - www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in
2. On the homepage, under the ‘Services’ tab, click ‘Know your PAN’
Over 1 million PANs deleted: Check if your card is still active
3. The website will take you to a new page where you will be asked to enter - name, gender, date of birth, registered mobile number and click ‘Submit’.
Over 1 million PANs deleted: Check if your card is still active 4. Enter the OTP or one-time password received on the registered mobile number and click on Validate.
5. If your PAN is valid, it will show as ‘Active’ under the remark column. | readmore...