PAN fiat not to affect deals

a PAN. Such persons would only have to declare the fact in a one page simple form before entering into any business transactions, he said. “In no case transactions would be prevented if one did not have a PAN number nor would there be any harassment,” he assured.

He said the income tax department was expediting issue of PAN to those who have already applied and such persons would only have to approach their income tax circle, which would issue PAN numbers within a few days to help them carry outtransactions.

The tax department also proposed to open special counters for issue of PAN, he added. As major transactions were usually planned in advance, new income tax assessees should take steps to get the PAN numbers in time, he said.

Kant said all old income tax assessees have been issued either PAN or GIR (general income registration) number. Such persons would have to quote PAN or GIR number while entering into business transactions specified in the notification. Notification says that eight types of business transactions qualify for mandatory quoting of PAN or GIR numbers.

They are: Sale and purchase of immovable property beyond Rs 5 lakh, motor vehicles, securities above Rs 10 lakh, time deposits exceeding Rs 50,000 with banks and post offices, opening of new bank accounts, new telephone connections and hotel bills beyond Rs 25,000.

This decision was to ensure that major economic deals and transactions came to the notice of income tax department and certainly not an attempt to bar suchtransactions, Kant said.

CBDT chairman said there was “no logic” in reports that finance ministry was planning to introduce a separate Budget head for the collections from the Kar Vivad Samadhan Scheme.

The scheme launched on September one is to collect the income tax arrears locked up in litigations, he said adding they were only tax collections hence could not be brought under a separate head.

Also there was no separate challan for their collections like in VDIS, he said adding that about 1000 out of five lakh cases have availed of the scheme so far. As in any other scheme, he expected it to gain momentum shortly before its closure on December 31 this year.

About Rs 42,000 crore of direct tax arrears are locked up in litigations.