Post office to check, verify your PAN with NSDL before you can invest in small savings schemes

At present, in the Finacle CBS System, the PAN Card of the depositors are updated as part of KYC compliance. The PAN Card entered in the system is validated based on the standard PAN format, that is, 10 alphanumeric characters. However, the correctness of the PAN card numbers provided by the Depositors or the PAN entered by the Post Office officials are not validated with NSDL currently.

“It has been decided to restrict the account opening without entering either PAN or Form - 60 details and validate the correctness of the PAN number entered by availing the facility of online verification of PAN Numbers being provided by NSDL,” stated a Department of Posts order issued on January 25, 2022.

This move came after the trouble faced on TDS returns as it was not accepted due to an invalid or wrong PAN mentioned, stated the Department of Posts. The notification said, “During the filing of TDS returns, many of the PAN numbers are not accepted in Income Tax statements due to invalid/wrong PAN, which leads to complaints from Depositors regarding non-availability of TDS deducted details in Form 26,4'5 of the Depositors. In order to settle these complaints, the DDOs are required to file correction TDS statements which unnecessarily put the DDOs and Depositors in trouble.”


“Further, as per Rule 6 of Govt. Savings Promotion General Rules 2018 (GSPR 2018), w.e.f.. L8.L2.2019, for opening of any account in Post Of6ce, submission of either PAN Number or Form - 60 is mandatory and if Form - 60 is submitted by the customer, PAN Number is to be submitted by the Depositor without fail, within next six months. If a depositor who has already opened an account prior to the date of notification (GSPR 2018) and has not already submitted his Permanent Account Number, the depositor shall do so within a period of six months from the date of notification (GSPR 2018) and in the event of the failure of the depositor to submit the Permanent Account Number within the specified period of six months, his account shall cease to be operational till the time the depositor submits the PAN Number.”

Also, DoP, said that it has updated its system to ensure that the PAN is entered correctly during the creation and updating of the Customers' CIFs. Depositors are alerted when a cash transaction exceeds Rs. 50,000.