PAN and TAN to be issued within a day in a move to improve ease of doing business

In order to improve the ease of doing business for newly incorporated companies, the Income Tax department has tied up with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to issue Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) in one day.

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday issued a press statement saying, "Applicant companies submit a common application form SPICe (INC 32) on MCA portal and once the data of incorporation is sent to Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) by MCA, the PAN and TAN are issued immediately without any further intervention of the applicant."

The Certificate of Incorporation (COI) of newly incorporated companies includes the PAN in addition to the Corporate Identity Number (CIN). TAN is also allotted simultaneously and communicated to the Company, the statement reads.

The move is expected to significantly improve the ranking of India in the Ease of Doing Business Study conducted by World Bank by reducing the number of processes of registration before various authorities under law. It will also make the entire registration process for new companies much simpler.

The Ministry highlighted the number of PAN cards allotted to newly incorporated Companies. It said: "Till March 31 2017, 19,704 newly incorporated Companies were allotted PAN cards in this manner."

The department has also introduced the Electronic PAN Card (E-PAN) which is sent by email, in addition to issue of the physical PAN Card to all applicants including individuals where PAN is allotted.

"Applicant would be benefited by having a digitally signed E-PAN card which they can submit as proof of identity to other agency electronically directly or by storing in the Digital Locker," the press statement said.