Income Tax Refunds: Now taxpayers will not have to wait too long to get income tax refund. The government is planning to get this work done quickly.
New Delhi: National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched a new facility to link PAN and bank account in real time on the Income Tax e-filing website. Through this new facility, now the PAN number and bank account of taxpayers can be verified immediately. The advantage of this will be that income tax refund and government benefits will be able to reach the account directly and quickly.
According to the Economic Times, NPCI had recently issued a circular in this regard. It said that this new API facility has been specially designed for government departments. Using this API, government departments will be able to verify the name, account status and PAN number of the account holder directly from the bank’s Core Banking System (CBS). Legal expert Utkarsh Bhatnagar says that this will enable the information of taxpayers to be verified quickly and correctly on the Income Tax portal. This will not delay the refund and the possibility of fraud will also be reduced.
Systems will have to be updated
All banks will have to update their systems to adopt this new system of NPCI. This may also bring some technical challenges and cyber security concerns. Nevertheless, this step will further strengthen the digital payment system and help taxpayers get quick and accurate refunds.
Aadhaar is now necessary for PAN
If you do not have a PAN card and want to get a PAN, then one document has now become mandatory for this. This document is none other than the Aadhaar card. From July 1, Aadhaar card will be necessary for a new PAN card. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has given this information. The purpose of this initiative is to increase accountability in filing taxes through digitization.
PAN-Aadhaar link till 31
People who have both PAN and Aadhaar are required to link these two cards. Existing PAN holders have time till 31 December 2025 to link their Aadhaar without any penalty. If they do not do so, their PAN will become inactive from next year.
