PAN card holders to get MIN waiver

The prevailing confusion over the mutual fund identification number (MIN) is likely to end soon.

It is likely that all cardholders of PAN, the alpha-numerical number issued by the Income Tax Department, would be exempted from having another identification number in the form of MIN.

However, a MIN would be required for all those investors who do not have a PAN but want to invest more than Rs 50,000 in a mutual fund scheme, sources said.

AMFI chairman A P Kurian said, "We will be making an announcement soon this week. The KYC norms will continue." He, however, refused to divulge details.

Earlier, finance minister P Chidambaram, during a visit to Mumbai, had said that PAN would be the core number and MIN will act as a prefix or a suffix to the PAN.CVL, the subsidiary of Central Depository Services, which was issuing the MIN, would upgrade its systems to match the criteria mandated by the ministry.

There is, however, a feeling that the ministry could take up the issue with Sebi and discuss various probabilities, including scrapping of the MIN.

PAN displays the name, date of birth and photograph of the cardholder, while the Income Tax Department has stored all relevant information of the holder.

Upgradation of systems by CVL would involve matching these relevant information and creating a combined data base for meeting know your client norms.