LTIMindtree logo.
Credit: X/@LTIMindtreeOFCL
LTI Mindtree, a subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), has won the contract to design, develop and maintain the PAN 2.0 project of the Income Tax Department that seeks to modernise the taxpayer registration services with added security features and convenience, sources said.
According to people familiar with the development, the project is expected to go live in the next 18 months.
The project was approved by the Union Cabinet in November last year with a financial outlay of Rs 1,435 crore. Under the PAN 2.0 system, next-generation Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards will be issued with added features like unique QR code.
As per the official source, LTIMindtree will function
as the Managed Service Provider (MSP) for the design, development, implementation, operations, and maintenance of the PAN 2.0
system.
LTIMindtree’s quoted bid value of the project is Rs 811.5 crore exclusive of taxes, and the adjusted bid value is Rs 792.55 crore exclusive of taxes.
Over 78 crore PAN cards have been issued under the existing system. Around 98% of the PAN holders in the country are individuals. PAN, the ten-digit alphanumeric number, is a key instrument for dealing in financial matters like filing tax returns, opening bank accounts, making high-value transactions like buying property, cars and jewellery.
The Income Tax Department also issues a Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) to people engaged in tax deduction or collection at source.
New Features
Under the PAN 2.0 project PAN and TAN will be combined. PAN will become a common business identifier. The new project will also consolidate the PAN related services on one platform, which are currently hosted on three different portals (e-Filing Portal, UTIITSL Portal and Protean e-Gov Portal).
In the PAN 2.0 project, all PAN and TAN related services will be hosted on a single unified portal of the Income Tax Department. It will host all end-to-end services related to PAN and TAN like allotment, updation, correction, Online PAN Validation (OPV), Know your AO, AADHAAR-PAN linking, verify your PAN, request for e-PAN, request for re-print of PAN card etc.
Protean eGov Technologies Ltd, which has been involved in the issuance and distribution of PAN cards since 2003, could not qualify the PAN 2.0 request for proposals (RFP) stage. Protean eGov Technologies MD & CEO Suresh Sethi had made an announcement in this regard in May.
“Over the weekend, we were informed by the Income Tax Department (ITD) that Protean eGov Technologies Ltd. has not been shortlisted for the next round of the PAN 2.0 RFP selection process,” Sethi had noted in a letter addressed to the company’s employees and stakeholders.
“The PAN 2.0 RFP pertains to the design, development, integration, and management of the Income Tax Department’s core tech systems — a domain we currently do not manage,” he noted.