The government has extended the deadline to link the PAN and Aadhaar by three months to June 30, 2021. Through a tweet, the Income Tax Department has stated that the extension is given in view of the difficulties arising out the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, the deadline was today, March 31, the end of the current financial year.
This is the 11th such extension ever since the government required both documents to be linked together. The first deadline given by the government was June 30, 2018.
The tenth extension was a nine-month long one given from June 30, 2020, also given in lieu of the outbreak of the ongoing pandemic.
Failure to link the PAN and Aadhaar could result in a penalty of up to ₹1,000, and could render a citizen's PAN inoperative, that would make it difficult to carry out certain high value transactions where quoting of PAN is mandatory.