The Income Tax department on Tuesday said it has issued Permanent Account Number (PAN) within a day to 19,704 newly incorporated companies till March 31, 2017.

In addition to physical PAN card, CBDT has introduced the Electronic PAN (e-PAN) card, which is sent by email to all applicants, including individuals.

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“Applicant would be benefited by having a digitally signed E-PAN card which they can submit as proof of identity to other agency electronically directly or by storing in the Digital Locker,” CBDT, the apex policy making body of the Income Tax department, said in a statement.

It said that newly incorporated companies have also been issued Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) simultaneously with PAN as the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has tied up with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) under which companies can submit a common application form.

Applicant companies submit a common application form SPICe (INC 32) on MCA portal and once the data of incorporation is sent to CBDT by the MCA, PAN and TAN are issued immediately without any further intervention of the applicant.

“The Certificate of Incorporation (COI) of newly incorporated companies includes the PAN in addition to the Corporate Identity Number (CIN). TAN is also allotted simultaneously and communicated to the company,” the statement added.

Till March 31, 2017, 19,704 newly incorporated companies were allotted PAN in this manner. During March 2017, of the 10,894 newly incorporated companies, PAN was allotted within 4 hours in 95.63 per cent cases and within one day in all cases.

Similarly, TAN was allotted to all such companies within 4 hrs in 94.7 per cent cases and within 1 day in 99.73 per cent cases.

“CBDT's initiative in starting of a business is expected to significantly improve the ranking of India in the Ease of Doing Business Study conducted by World Bank by reducing the number of processes of registration before various authorities under law, reducing the time taken for allotment of the registration number (CIN, PAN, TAN) and making the entire registration process for new companies much simpler,” it said.