Hyderabad: Citing one’s personal account number while booking railway tickets can be a security hazard as the Indian Railway displays the PAN, name, sex and age of passengers on the reservation charts. All it takes is for someone to note down these numbers and use them for benami transactions.
It is mandatory for traders like jewellers to collect TCS (Tax Collection at Source) from customers on purchase of jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh and bullion worth Rs 2 lakh and a false PAN in these cases comes in handy for them.
The numbers can be misused in several other ways like quoting the PAN of the house owner while showing tax savings etc. Income-tax officials, thus, say that the PAN details should not be divulged, unless for tax purposes, to remain immune from income-tax frauds.
Many passengers provide their PAN for Tatkal bookings leading to the number and name of the holder coming into public domain.
“In fact, financial fraudsters and jewellers are always on the lookout for PAN details, just like phone numbers and e-mail IDs are sought by marketing companies, online fraudsters and bulk spam mail senders. This crucial information is bought by fraudsters and jewellers to keep their transactions clean on paper,” said an I-T official.
The Railways lists more than 10 options for proof of identity for Internet as well as for Tatkal bookings.
While PAN card is one of them, Aadhaar card, voters’ photo identity card, passport, driving licence, credit cards with photographs issued by the banks, passbook of any nationalised bank with a photograph, student identity card and photo identity card issued by the Central or state government are among the other options.
“It is advised to avoid quoting PAN details for identity proof at any source other than income tax-related matters. In fact, PAN, TAN and other such details should not be given out to your consultants and assistants as well,” added the official.
