The government on Friday extended the deadline to link Aadhaar with PAN till March 31.
"It has come to notice that some taxpayers have not completed the linking of PAN with Aadhaar. Therefore, to facilitate the process of linking, it has been decided to further extend the time for linking till March 31, 2018," the Ministry of Finance stated.
This is the third extension of the deadline. The deadline was first extended until August 31 and then until December 31.
However, the last date for linking mobile phone number with Aadhaar remains February 6, 2018.
The government has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with PAN card, bank accounts and other services to bring in transparency and get a better control over domestic black money safe havens.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has set up a five-judge bench to hear next week a plea challenging the move to link Aadhaar with other services on the ground that it infringes on citizens' privacy.
Under the provisions of the recently introduced section 139AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961, with effect from July 1, 2017, all taxpayers with an Aadhaar number are required to link it with their PAN, the ministry said.
Earlier, the government made quoting of Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns after it was found that people with duplicate PAN cards opened multiple bank accounts but did not file returns.