April 30, 2012
Kalaivaraikalai
In
order to weed out the problem of fake PAN cards and to ensure an
accurate biometric data, the government has initiated a mammoth project
to bring together both the Aadhar and the PAN databases.
The
Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)
issues the Aadhar number which is now being synchronised with the
Permanent Account Number database maintained by the I-T Department.
The
Finance Ministry, which had first mooted the proposal of generating and
issuing biometric PAN in 2006, had kept the decision pending for
sometime as it was felt that both the agencies (UIDAI and I-T) would be
“duplicating the effort” to reach a common goal — biometrics-based
identity.
“It
has been decided to integrate both the Aadhar and the PAN database
which will help the agencies to maintain a correct database for ensuring
two things.
While
the Aadhar will ensure effective disbursal of government schemes to
citizens, the biometric PAN card database will help stop the forgery of
PAN cards which begets economic crimes,” a senior Finance Ministry
official said.
The
Finance Ministry, under the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in
2006, had proposed that the biometric PAN cards would have the I-T
assesses’ fingerprints (two from each hand) and the face.
This will now be achieved by collating the Aadhar database with that of the PAN.
Courtesy : The hindu
