I-T introduces third gender option for filing returns

| TNN | Updated: Mar 29, 2018, 05:41 IST
Dr Sameera Mahamud JahagirdarDr Sameera Mahamud Jahagirdar
PUDUCHERRY: The untiring efforts of a transsexual from the Union territory of Puducherry have pushed the Income Tax department to include the third gender option in the online income tax return filing facility on its e-filing portal https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.
Now, all transsexuals across the country can file their income tax returns citing the third gender after getting an exemption from the income tax department from linking their PAN with their Aadhaar. So far, transsexuals had to choose either ‘male’ or ‘female’ to link their PAN with Aadhaar and also to file the returns online.

The Union government had made it mandatory to link PAN with Aadhaar before March 31 this year. Aadhaar has the third gender option while PAN does not (it has either male or female option only). Transsexuals with third gender identity in Aadhaar, but with male or female (at the time of birth) gender in PAN have been facing huge difficulties in linking the two documents due to the mismatch in gender.

Dr Sameera Mahamud Jahagirdar, a consultant in critical care medicine at Mahatma Gandhi medical college and research institute in Puducherry, who has changed her official identity from male to transsexual following prescribed legal process, could not link the PAN with Aadhaar as the gender was mentioned as ‘male’ in PAN, but as ‘transgender’ in Aadhaar.


Sameera, one of the several thousand transsexuals facing this problem, was not willing to be identified as either male or female. Her attempts to change the gender in PAN to transgender turned futile. The online income tax return filing facility on the department’s e-filing portal too did not have ‘transgender’ option.


After repeated online petitions failed to yield any fruitful result, Sameera approached the principal commissioner of income tax (Puducherry) Jahanzeb Akhtar and sought her help. The principal commissioner referred the issue to the systems directorate of the department, which made modifications in the e-filing facility to incorporate the third gender in the online facility to file IT returns. Sameera was given an exemption from linking her PAN with her Aadhaar until the department incorporates ‘transgender’ identity in PAN.


A top income tax official said the Union government has initiated efforts to include ‘transgender’ option in PAN and until then they can seek an exemption to link their PAN with Aadhaar to file returns online as ‘third gender.’ There are roughly five lakh transsexuals in the country according to 2011 census. Apart from facing difficulties in linking their PAN with Aadhaar, they face a series of problems including denial of loans due to the mismatch in the gender in the two documents.



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