The government has started issuing Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) in electronic form to newly incorporated companies within a day, a step towards improving India’s ranking on the ease of doing business rankings.
Until March, 19,704 such companies received PAN in a day. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said it had tied up with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Under the arrangement, companies can submit a common application form, SPICe (INC 32), on the latter’s portal. Once the data are sent to the CBDT, PAN and TAN are issued immediately.
In March alone, PAN was allotted to 95.63 per cent of the 10,894 newly floated companies within four hours. Similarly, TAN was allotted to 94.7 per cent of these within four hours and to 99.73 per cent of such companies in a day.
CBDT sources said the lamination of PAN cards would take a few days but e-PAN was being sent to applicants within 24 hours.
“An applicant would benefit by having a digitally-signed e-PAN card, which they can submit as proof of identity to other agencies,” the CBDT said. India was ranked 155 on the parameter of starting a business in the 2017 World Bank ease of doing business report, down from 151, a year ago.
“Our initiative in starting a business is expected to significantly improve the ranking of India in the ease of doing business study conducted by the World Bank by reducing the number of processes of registration before various authorities, reducing the time taken for allotment of the registration number and making the entire registration process for new companies much simpler,” the CBDT stated.