Over 1 million PANs deactivated: How to check if your card is still working

More than one million permanent account numbers (PANs) were deleted or de-activated by the government, in a move to check fake identities. Reportedly, as on July 27, 11,44,211 duplicate PANS have been identified, said Indian Express. PAN is the key identifier of taxable entity and aggregator of all financial transactions undertaken by one person.

As per government rules, a person cannot be registered with more than one PAN number. The Indian Express reported that the government also detected fake PAN cards which were allotted to non-existing individuals or to people who have submitted false information about themselves.

How to check