As it is well known that the income tax department has allowed Aadhaar card holders to use the biometric id number in lieu of the Permanent Account Number (PAN). But as per new provision of Income Tax, fine of Rs. 10,000 may be levied in case of wrong Aadhar Number. As per the latest amendments in the Finance Bill 2019, not only allowed people to use Aadhaar in lieu of PAN but also introduced a penalty for giving a false Aadhaar number. However, the new penalty rules are applicable only in cases where you are using Aadhaar in lieu of PAN and where quoting PAN is mandatory according to the income tax department rules. It is well known that although Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identity Authority of India, yet the fine is not imposed by UIDAI but by the income tax department. Under Section 272B of the Income Tax Act, 1961, the department can impose a penalty in case of default in complying with provisions relating to PAN, i.e., failure to obtain, quote, or authenticate PAN.
As reported by Shri Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in Ministry of Finance, during the year 2013, 2014 and 2015 (up to 31.3.2015), Income Tax Department has through its Non-filer Monitoring System (NMS) identified 12.9 lakh, 22.09 lakh and 44.09 lakh cases respectively, as non-filers of return, though having potential tax liabilities. As a result of this exercise, 30,68,662 new returns have been filed and additional tax of Rs. 4733.61 crore has been collected in the year 2013, 2014 and up to 31.3.2015 in the year 2015. Further follow up action is underway and similar exercise is also planned to be undertaken in the current financial year. While identifying non-filers of return through NMS, the Income Tax Department analyses and assimilates all in-house information as well as transactional data received from third-party including Annual Information Return (AIR), Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) and Tax Collection at Source (TCS) statements, Central Information Bureau (CIB) data et