The
increasing importance of PAN has increased the likeliness of PAN Card
identity theft. The safeguarding of the physical copy of the PAN card no
longer assures that your card is not being misused. As a majority of
transactions demand a photocopy of your PAN card, or simply quoting the
Permanent Account Number, it is very easy for your information to be
misused for high ticket purchases or benami property transactions. A
copy of your PAN card or simply its number can be quoted in
transactions, which you are not even a part of.
Example of how your
information can be misused: Recently, a consumer activist group revealed
that the PAN card copy used in Railway ticket Tatkal bookings were
misused by several jewellers. When an individual produces his PAN to
book the Tatkal tickets, this information is fed in the Indian Railways
system and also displayed on the ticket, reservation chart and train
coaches. Unscrupulous jewellers steal this information from such public
displays and use it to furnish tax collected details while they sell
jewellery of very high value to high-net worth individuals who do not
wish to produce their PAN.
If this happens to you?
If this happens to you?
When your
PAN card is illegally used, you may not even be aware of this for
atleast 6 months after the wrong transaction. You can check for such
benami transactions by going through your Form 26AS, which is a
consolidated statement of tax deducted, along with other details. If you
are a non-tax paying PAN card holder, you may not even be able to check
this form. The Income Tax department will require the PAN card holder
to prove that the transaction was not carried out by him, and also give
details on his source of funds. This becomes very difficult and
time-consuming. As a PAN card holder, you should take care while
disclosing your PAN details to anyone. You must hand over only signed
photocopies and try to reduce using PAN in all casual transactions as ID
proof.
Phonetic PAN (PPAN):
The phonetic PAN (PPAN) is
a new concept introduced to prevent a single PAN being allotted to more
than one assessee with same or similar names. When PAN is allotted, the
PPAN of the assessee is compared with the PPANs of all the assessees to
whom PAN has been allotted in the country. A warning is sounded off if a
matching PPAN is detected. A duplicate PPAN report is then generated. A
new PAN can be allotted only if the Assessing Officer overrides this
duplicate PPAN detection.
Source : Bankbazar.com
Source : Bankbazar.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment