First Citizen First to Get PAN

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) launched a direct tax net expansion campaign today, distributing Permanent Account Number (PAN) to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, VicePresident Paramanand Jha, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and Ministers today. Finance Minister Surendra Pandey handed over the PAN cards under his dream project that he had announced in his budget speech for 2009-10.

"We have issued a PAN card to the president to show that no one is beyond the tax net," said minister Pandey. The government is observing fiscal year 2009-10 as Tax Participation Year.

"Individual tax payers with over Rs 1.5 million turnover and Rs 0.15 million income should register in it," said IRD director general Shanta Bahadur Shrestha.

"It is targeted at also those who rent out houses, professionals including doctors and engineers and investors who have invested over Rs 10 million in the capital market," he said adding that PAN is applicable to those who are listed in Income Tax Act section 78.

According to IRD, around 3,53,121 people and companies have listed for PAN till July 15 and of them 2,76,607 are individual taxpayers. The department is planning to increase the number of PAN holders to 5,50,000 in the current fiscal year adding 1,50,000 individual and 50,000 organizational taxpayers. "We have plans to bring in over 2,00,000 taxpayers this year," said Shrestha.

Moreover, IRD has launched e-filling and verification facilities for small tax payers called D01. People having income below 1,50,000 can file online tax and also verify their account using Internet. IRD is brining online tax filing system for medium (D02) and large (D03) taxpayers within a month.