Tax payers were promised that they would get PAN cards within a fortnight, after the Central government passed on the job to UTI Investors Services from July 1 this year. But in Ahmedabad even after two months applicants have not still received those cards.
None of the 16,000 applicants in the city have received their PAN cards so far. About 9,000 applicants, however, have received the PAN number.
PAN cards are required while filing I-T returns. Since there are only 10 days remaining to file the returns, applicants in the city are lamenting on the delay in issuing of these cards.
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Officials at UTI Investors Services are defending themselves saying that out of the 200 completed application forms that they receive everyday, half are either improperly filled up are with silly mistakes.
This, they say, is making it difficult for them to process the forms and hence the delay. A PAN application form costs Rs five and a processing fees of Rs 60 is to be paid to UTI Investors Services. The I-T department used to process free-of-charge.
Moreover, Tatkal category applicants need to pay Rs 150. The service is currently not available in Ahmedabad and is expected to begin in six months.
Ramniklal Marulikar, in-charge of PAN cards at the Ahmedabad office of UTI Investors Services, said he was not authorised to speak on the issue.
Sanjay Patel, an applicant, complains of bad service by UTI Investors Services. He says that his application form was untraceable by UTI Investors Services officials and he had been asked to apply again.
An official at UTI Investors Services said most of the applications are being filled up in blue ink, which is unacceptable by the software, instead of black.
Meanwhile, I-T officials say UTI Investors Services was asked to issue PAN cards by the Central government as an initiative for the efficient and fast processing of PAN applications, which was earlier allotted by the I-T Department.
But it now seems that there had been no improvement and in terms of services by UTI Investors Services.
A senior official at UTI Investors Services