Five ways the Aadhaar is going affect you from July 1

Currently, all the attention is focused on the Goods and Service Tax (GST) which will be rolled out from July 1, after a special midnight session of Parliament. However, the Aadhaar will also be getting a major boost from July 1, with the identification becoming compulsory for many financial and personal transactions. Here are five of them: 

1) You must link your PF account to your Aadhaar 

All employees who opt for the Employees' Provident Fund must now link their account to their Aadhaar numbers by June 30. The EPFO has stated that this move will lower the time taken for settlement of payments, down to ten days from the current 20 days. The rule also applies to pensioners.

2) No Aadhaar, no PAN card 

If you want to get a new PAN card after Saturday, please ensure you have an Aadhaar number first. The move is yet another step by the government to ensure that a citizen's activities are tracked at all times, through a common point. 

3) Link existing PANs to Aadhaar 

The government has made it mandatory for all PAN cards in the country to be associated with an Aadhaar. While the PAN card is required for significant financial transactions, as the Govt seems to have realised with some delay - those looking to jump tax simply made several PAN cards. The move to link the Aadhaar is hoped to be a way to stop this scam. 

4) Aadhaar a must for passport 

From July 1, as per a notification from the Ministry of External Affairs, no new passports will be issued without an Aadhaar. The identification number has been made one of the required documents when applying for your passport. 

5) File your IT returns with Aadhaar 

Considering that barely 2% of this country even pays income tax, it is obvious that a huge number are skipping the tax. The govt has decided to make the Aadhaar compulsory for filing your IT returns from July 1. The move is a two-pronged one. Obviously, the govt can verify if you have paid your tax or not. But secondly, thanks to the linking with the PAN, the govt can also verify if those registered for a PAN have paid their taxes. 

• GST
• Aadhaar
• Pan Card
• Passport