Deadline to link Aadhaar with PAN card may be extended again

In a sigh of relief for people, the government may soon extend the deadline to link Aadhaar with the PermanentAcccount Number (PAN) card by nearly six months, a leading daily reported.

The Supreme Court, which is hearing petitions against making the linking of the biometric identifierwithbank accounts and mobile phone numbers mandatory, will pronounce its judgement today. If the top courtcourt upholdsthe decision, the government will provide three to six monthsto all taxpayers to complete the process, extending the earlier deadline of December 31, 2017.

Although the new deadline has not been out, it is beingspeculated that the new window for the linkage will be valid till March 31, 2018.

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The exercise aimed at eliminating the duplicate PANs and making all benami(in the name of another person) transactions void was criticised by citizens and several opposition parties on the ground that it was intruding into a person's fundamental right to privacy.

This would be the second time when the government will extend the deadline, as previously in August, the government announced a four-month grace period ending this December.

As per received data, out of 33 crore Aadhaar card holders, only 13.28 crore people have linked their pan with the 12-digit unique identification (UID) number till November 2017.