Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, a leader in the Lok Sabha, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, requesting a six-month extension for linking PAN cards with Aadhaar and the removal of the Rs 1000 fee. He cited a Department of Revenue notification that required people to link their PAN with their Aadhaar online by March 31, 2023, or face inoperative PAN status with a fee of Rs 1000.

Chowdhury also mentioned that many Indians live in remote areas with limited internet access, and unscrupulous individuals are extorting money from them. He urged the Centre to direct post offices to assist these citizens free of charge to avoid causing extreme hardship.

Chowdhury’s letter to the prime minister emphasized the urgent need for the Ministry of Finance and the Department of Revenue to empower all local and sub post offices to help people link their PAN and Aadhaar cards for free, and to extend the deadline by six months.

The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar is March 31, 2023, and failure to do so will result in the PAN becoming inoperative, according to the income tax department. The Aadhaar-PAN linking was free before March 31, 2022, but a fee of Rs 500 was imposed from April 1, 2022, and later increased to Rs 1,000 from July 1, 2022.