The Income Tax Department, on Thursday said that the transgenders need not submit any supporting documents specifying their gender to get PAN Card.
Supporting documents will not be needed in the filing of fresh application or for those wishing to change their sex in an existing card, the department said.
There is no requirement of depositing any supporting document for change of ‘gender’ to ‘transgender’ vide PAN Change request application made either through the portal of NSDL or portal of UTITSL.
Earlier, in view of representations from the transgender community, the CBDT had amended the Income-tax Rules,1962, in and Form number 49A and Form number 49AA, by providing option of transgender for individual applicants. Till now, PAN application forms only specified male and female categories.
“New PAN allotment and change request applications with gender as transgender is allowed without hassle. Also, there is no requirement of depositing any supporting document for change of gender to transgender,” the department today said in an advisory.
PAN is a 10-digit unique alphanumeric number allotted by the I-T department to individuals and entities.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in the notification issued in April, under sections 139A and 295 of the Income Tax Act, had specified the new application process for obtaining a PAN number by an individual.
“Individuals from the transgender community were facing hassles in obtaining a PAN card and this problem was further magnified as Aadhaar had the third gender category but not PAN. Hence, transgender people were not able to link their PAN with their Aadhaar due to this anomaly,” a senior official had told PTI.
The amendments will now be reflected in Form 49A (PAN application form for Indian citizens) and 49AA (PAN application form for individuals not a citizen of India).
The government has now made quoting of Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns as well as obtaining a new PAN.
