MUMBAI, Nov 2: Authorities like real estate registration officers, managers of banks, post masters, stock brokers, merchant bankers, etc, MTNL authorities, and hotel managers will now have to provide details of transactions which are now necessarily to be accompanied by the Permanent Account Number (PAN) to the Director of Income Tax (Investigation) within a month of such a receipt, a notification from the Central Board for Direct Taxes (CBDT) said.The purpose behind the exercise to provide a ready database to the investigation wing of the Income-Tax Department which conducts searches and surveys on assessees suspected to have concealed income.According to the notification issued by the CBDT on transactions requiring the quotation of PAN number also specifies that those who have not been allotted PAN numbers can quote their General Index Registration (GIR) till the PAN is allotted.Most significantly, those who do not have a PAN or GIR number and enter in such transactions in cash shall be required tofill a form, (number 60) giving such details. Those who have agricultural income and no other income eligible to tax, will have to furnish these details in another form (Form 61).This means that all such transactions will now be recorded by the Income Tax Department, irrespective of whether one has a PAN number or not.The transactions, already sufficiently publicised by the department include: purchase or sale of property worth Rs five lakh or more, sale or purchase of motor vehicles, a time deposit of Rs 50000 and above with any Bank or post office, a contract of sale or purchase of securities worth Rs 10 lakh or more, opening a bank account, applying for a phone and payments to hotels exceeding Rs 25000 at a time.Meanwhile, the IT department in Mumbai has received 14,69,684 applications for PAN till date, of which 2,55,000 were received in the months of July, August and September. PAN numbers have been allotted to 9,20,970 applicants so far.Asked why the PAN allotment process was taking so long,with several applicants having applied as far back as 1996, the chief commissioner of Income Tax, Mumbai, B Mishra quoted many reasons. The allotment of PAN has been centralised at Delhi. (A PAN will be an all-India number). The main server was located there and on several occasions, the job was hampered due to poor connectivity (operated through MTNL lines).The computerised process went through its initial hiccups and mistakes in the PAN cards too had to be rectified. Also, a major duplication exercise was undertaken after it was decided that the assessing officer's code number also be given along with the PAN. New PAN numbers are now being reconciled with the old ones issued.In Mumbai, the department has put the Saral form on the Web. Assessees can down load the form from the site: mumcit.com. Though the last date for filing of returns ended today, Saral forms will be valid like the other forms, department sources said.
