Your PAN card could soon be biometric

As a measure to increase security and reduce fraud, all permanent account number (PAN) cards issued to tax payers, possibly after October this year, will be biometric cards that contain the physiological characteristics (such as fingerprints or eye colour) of the card-holder.

PAN is a unique alpha-numeric identity mandatory for all financial transactions in the country.

Announcing this here today, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said all new PAN cards would be biometric and existing PAN card-holders would be encouraged to switch.

There are currently around 50 million PAN cards, which will remain valid even if the holder refuses to opt for the biometric version.

The new cards are expected to cost Rs 200 to Rs 300 while a non-biometric card costs Rs 67. The tax department, however, has not finalised the actual cost.

The income tax department had found that nearly 1.3 million PAN cards are duplicate (more than one card per person) and it is currently weeding them out.

"Around 1.1 million cards have been de-duplicated and the process will be completed shortly. We will set a date, after which all new PAN cards will be biometric," Chidambaram told reporters here after a conference of chief income tax commissioners.

The finance ministry had earlier set up a group to finalise the rules for introducing biometric PANs. The biometric PAN cards come at a time when there is a move to issue biometric passports to Indians.