SBI asks customers to link Aadhaar with PAN before March-end

The State Bank of India (SBI) has asked its customers to link their Aadhaar and PAN card before the end of this financial year.

In a tweet from the official SBI account, the bank said customers could “avoid any inconvenience and continue enjoying a seamless banking service” by linking their PAN and Aadhaar details.

We advise our customers to link their PAN with Aadhaar to avoid any inconvenience and continue enjoying a seamless banking service.#ImportantNotice #AadhaarLinking #Pancard #AadhaarCard #AmritMahotsav #AzadiKaAmritMahotsavWithSBI pic.twitter.com/Qp9ZBqG4Xh

— State Bank of India (@TheOfficialSBI) February 18, 2022

The lender said seeding of PAN with Aadhaar by the deadline is mandatory, failing which "PAN will be rendered inoperative/inactive and cannot be quoted for conducting specified transactions".

Under Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act 1961, the government has made it mandatory to link Aadhaar and Permanent Account Numbers (PANs) by March 31, 2022. If PAN details are not seeded with Aadhaar number by the deadline, it will become inactive from April 1, 2022.

The SBI Twitter post tells customers to visit the income tax department's e-filing website and complete the linking process. Here are steps to link PAN with Aadhaar card:

Visit the website

Fill in the details of PAN number, Aadhaar number, name as per Aadhaar and mobile number.

Check the boxes "I have only year of birth in Aadhaar card" and "I agree to validate my Aadhaar details".

Click on the 'Link Aadhaar' tab and complete the process of linking PAN with Aadhaar number.

The income tax department will validate the user's name, date of birth and gender as given in the Aadhaar details prior to linking it with the PAN.

PAN card holders can also link their details with the Aadhaar number by sending an SMS to any of the two PAN service providers -- NSDL e-Governance Infrastructure Limited or UTI Infrastructure Technology and Services Limited.

The sender will have to SMS the details in a specific format and send it to either 567678 or 56161.

As per the format, if the Aadhaar number is 111122223333 and PAN is AAAPA9999Q, then the sender will have to SMS the text UIDPAN 111122223333 AAAPA9999Q to 567678 or 56161.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has extended the last date to link PAN with Aadhaar several times. As of January 24, over 43.34 crore PAN details have been linked their Aadhaar, Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance, had informed the Parliament earlier this month.