PAN stands for Permanent Account Number. PAN card is issued by the Income Tax Department in India. It is actually a ten-digit alphanumeric code generated and issued by the Indian I-T Department. PAN card is one of the most important documents for an Indian citizen which helps in identifying every taxpaying person (assesee) in India. Pan card is an extremely useful tool in the hands of Income tax department to bring into the taxpaying net all the Indian citizens whose incomes are taxable. PAN number is more like an identification number for Indians.
For all those investors who want to invest in different investment schemes need to have PAN Number. Whether one wants to open a bank account or invest in stock market or open a demat account or taking salary or receiving professional fees etc need to submit his PAN card India number. This holds true for not only Indian citizens but also for Non-Resident Indians living abroad and who wish to make any kind of investment in India. NRIs willing to buy any property in India or carry out some trading transactions cannot do so without a PAN number. Unlike bank accounts, one needs to have only one PAN card and in case, he has more than one then he needs to retain one and surrender another. In actual sense, it has been declared illegal to have two or more PANs and the penalty for such offence is no less than Rs.10,000.
In India, PAN services are conferred by NSDL (National Securities Depository Limited) and UTISL (UTI Investor Services Ltd) on the authorization of Income tax department. Most of the cities and towns in India have IT PAN Service centres and TIN facilitation centres. One can simply download the PAN application forms from the income tax department website and submit it after giving the necessary details.
One can also obtain the PAN card form from NSDL and UTISL websites. One of the best features of PAN card is that, even if you change your residential address, your PAN number remains the same. Every Indian who falls in the category of taxpayers must have PAN numbers.