Cabinet clears PAN 2.0, card to feature QR code

The upgrade for existing PAN holders will be free of cost.

The PAN 2.0 project will enable technology-driven transformation of taxpayer registration services with an aim to improve ease of access and service delivery, an official statement said. The PAN 2.0 project proposes to make PAN as the “single source of truth and data consistency” and with security and optimisation of infrastructure for greater agility, a statement said.

“The new PAN cards will be QR code enabled. The existing ones can regenerate the old PAN card to the QR code-enabled ones,” a senior Finance Ministry official told The Indian Express.

Around 78 crore PAN cards have been issued so far, out of which 98 per cent belong to individuals.

Vaishnaw said there have been demands by businesses to not have different identification numbers and thus, the new PAN will work as a common business identifier. There will be a unified portal as the existing software is nearly 15-20 years old, he said. “It’ll be completely paperless, online and a lot of focus will be on the grievance redressal system,” he said.

The PAN 2.0 is a e-governance project for re-engineering the business processes of taxpayer registration services through transformation of PAN/TAN services, the statement said.