New Delhi: The Union government has collected more than Rs 600 crore as penalty from defaulters who were not able to link their PAN with their Aadhaar card within the deadline. The Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha, that the “number of PANs not linked with Aadhaar, excluding exempted categories, is 11.48 crore as of January 29, 2024.”The penalty for not having linked the PAN to Aadhaar till the last date was Rs 1,000. Chaudhary said, “The total collection of fee from persons who have not linked their PAN with Aadhaar is ₹601.97 crore from July 1, 2023 to January 31, 2024”. The last date to link PAN and Aadhaar was June 30, 2023. The date has been pushed many times over years as the move by the Union government to call for this linkage has been seen as controversial.A PAN or Permanent Account Number, is a 10-digit unique alphanumeric identification number (including both alphabets and numbers) issued to primarily to those Indians who pay direct taxes.Aadhaar is a 12 digit individual identification number which serves as proof of identity and proof of address for residents of India. But the Aadhaar has been in the eye of several controversies, especially what it is a valid proof of. Last month, the union government said that Aadhaar is not a proof of citizenship or date of birth, and Aadhaar cards and downloads now include that disclaimer on the ID itself.The Minister was responding to a query by TMC MP Mala Roy on February 5, Monday.The Income Tax Department Order says that PAN cards will become inoperative if taxpayers fail to link their documents with Aadhaar within the deadline. Moreover, no refunds would be made against such PANs. Also, a failure to link would also attract a higher rate of Tax Deducted at Source or TDS and Tax Collected at Source, or TCS deduction/collection.According to an RTI reply to a query by the Central Board of Direct Taxes last year in November, out of a total of 70.24 crore PAN card holders, 57.25 crore had linked their cards to Aadhar. More than 12 crore PAN cards—of which 11.5 crore have been deactivated—have not been linked to Aadhaar, according to the RTI reply.The Supreme Court’s Order in 2017, that upheld the government’s decision to force the linking of PAN cards with Aadhar, while bringing down the penalty for those without Aadhar, there was a fair amount of discussion on the ruling “uncritically accepting the contentions of the government.”