The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday approved the ₹1,435-crore PAN 2.0 project of the Income Tax department (ITD), which will upgrade the existing system and make personal data protection mandatory for user agencies.
Briefing media after the cabinet meeting, information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said PAN 2.0 will revamp the complete I-T backbone of existing system and it will be used as common identifier for businesses, a long-pending demand of the business community.
“The PAN card is an integral part of our lives, especially for the middle class and small businesses. It has undergone significant upgrades, and PAN 2.0 has been approved today. The existing system will be enhanced, and a robust digital backbone will be introduced,” Vaishnaw said.
The Union government has so far issued about 78 crore (780 million) Permanent Account Numbers (PANs), of which about 98% are issued to individuals. The I-T department and the finance ministry did not respond to specific queries related to the project.
According to an official statement issued by the CCEA, the purpose of the common identifier is extensive. “The PAN 2.0 Project resonates with the vision of the Government enshrined in Digital India by enabling the use of PAN as Common Identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies,” the statement said.
The project — with a financial outlay of ₹1,435 crore — aims to enable technology-driven transformation of taxpayer registration services and provide ease of access and speedy service delivery with improved quality, it added. Other features of the project include single source of truth and data consistency, eco-friendly processes and cost optimisation, and security and optimisation of infrastructure for greater agility.
PAN 2.0 is an e-Governance project for re-engineering the business processes of taxpayer registration services through technology driven transformation of PAN and Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) services for enhanced digital experience of the taxpayers, the statement said.
“This will be an upgrade of the current PAN/TAN 1.0 eco-system consolidating the core and non-core PAN/TAN activities as well as PAN validation service,” it added.
Meanwhile, the I-T department in August this year already floated a tender to engaged a service provider for design, development, implementation, operation and maintenance of PAN 2.0 project.
“The PAN 2.0 Project aims to consolidate end-to-end PAN/TAN services starting from online receipt of applications, verification of PAN/TAN applications, de-duplication, processing, allotment of PAN/TAN, issuance of e-PAN, maintenance and storage of PAN/TAN data, Online PAN Validation (OPV) services, Printing and Dispatch of PAN card, integration with stakeholders to enable technology driven transformation of Tax payer registration services for enhancing digital experience of the taxpayers/PAN holders and the ITD officials,” the tender notice of August 2024 said.
According to the notice, the potential service provider is expected to perform three main tasks. The first is to design, procure, develop, install, commission, operate, and maintain all infrastructure components, including hardware, software, networking, and PCs for the entire PAN 2.0 system. The second task is to ensure the complete migration of relevant legacy data to the new system. And the third task is to ensure seamless integration with other internal and external systems.