The number was stated by a high level official from the income tax department, who refused to be named, at an interactive session on e-filing and e-payment of income tax organised by Bharat Chamber of Commerce (BCC) in Kolkata on Monday.
The department has now taken up the task to cancel the unauthorised cards with seriousness, the official further said.
The issuance of multiple PAN cards to a person was due to procedural errors.
The income tax department is also mulling the idea to issue biometric cards, to check the duplication of PAN cards.
However, the proposal was still under consideration, the official added. Speaking at the interactive session, B S Biswas, additional commissioner, Income Tax (CO), said, to centralise the tax filing and return system, the creation of a national database in Delhi was underway.
M Surana, chairman, taxation and company affairs standing committee of BCC, said e-filing would be extremely difficult for industries and other assesses located in rural areas where broadband facilitates were not available.
