Jaitley explains why he said: ‘We are forcing Aadhaar on you’

 

These are the two most important takeaways from the Finance Bill 2017

 

Aadhaar card is compulsory for applying for Permanent Account Number (PAN) and for filing income tax returns.

 

Now any pre-existing PAN number without Aadhaar card will also become invalid. This means the taxpayers must provide their Aadhaar number to tax authorities.

 

Why is this being done? Why is the Aadhaar, which was once just a secondary identification document now such a must-have?

 

Tax evasion will be limited. By linking Aadhaar with filing of income tax returns is “big depositors” of discontinued currency who have not replied to the Income Tax department’s queries on the source.

 

What will happen to people with multiple PAN cards?

 

There have been cases of people using multiple PAN cards to evade taxes so in order to stem this scam also biometrics and iris information stored in Aadhaar will prove helpful.

 

What if you don’t have an Aadhaar card?

 

Well, you better make one, because Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is not going to listen to any excuse that you will not make one. Instead, he has said that people who don’t have one, can prove they are in the process of getting one made but not say they will not get one.

 

The earlier definition of Aadhaar was of a universal card that does not really have a specific purpose behind it. Now the card has an even greater purpose. It was meant to be used as a very versatile card and be used for all government related services and programmes but now it will be used to stem the rot of corruption in the country.

 

Also read: 8 things you need to know about the Finance Bill 2017

 

Remember : “In India only about 1% out of 1.25 billion people pay taxes.”