February 2022 - Fee Only Investment Advisers

Prevent NRIs’ PAN from being declared inactive

PANs not linked to Aadhar will be deactivated from April 1, 2022 leading to suspension of operations in the bank accounts, securities/MF accounts linked to such PANs. The tax department has not clarified how they will distinguish PANs of NRIs/OCIs or other persons who may not be eligible to apply for Aadhar and keep such PANs active. The tax department has not provided any facility for NRIs/OCIs to keep their PANs activated by marking themselves as ineligible for Aadhar. Deactivation of PANs will lead to serious consequences for affected individuals and the Income Tax department owes it to them not to wait till the last minute and to come out with a solution well in time. Harsh Roongta’s article in Business Standard today where he outlines that these are not the only tax travails faced by NRIs/OCIs.

Now, make central KYC registry fully operational

Financial, Governments, Press / By Team FeeOnly / February 7, 2022

Ease of doing business rankings enjoys the govt’s attention for obvious reasons. “Ease of living” for citizens does not get the same attention though it can have a high impact on day to day lives of citizens. Many structural reforms have not delivered simply because the last 5% of the work has been dragging for years even though 95% of the hard work has already been done. Electronic toll collection that has not resulted in any significant reduction in pile up before toll booths is a prime example. In the financial sector the Central KYC registry has been in place since 2016 but lack of accountability has ensured that the benefits from this path breaking reform is still awaited while lots of inconvenience is being caused to citizens. Some work has also happened on bank account portability and loan portability without any tangible benefit on the ground. Harsh Roongta’s article in Business Standard.

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