The income tax department has selected mid-sized information technology firm LTIMindtree Ltd for its project to upgrade technology infrastructure for managing Permanent Account Numbers (PANs), showed the government’s public procurement portal.

The Larsen & Toubro arm’s quoted bid value was ₹811.5 crore exclusive of taxes, and the adjusted bid value was ₹792.55 crore exclusive of taxes.

The adjusted bid value, determined based on the factors set out in the request for proposal (RFP), helps compare bids and determine the auction winner.

“In pursuance of the RFP published for the project, four bids were received. Based on the bid evaluation, M/s LTIMindtree Ltd is declared as the successful bidder,” said the notification on the portal.

PAN, a ten-digit alphanumeric number, is needed for filing tax returns, opening bank accounts, making high-value cash deposits, and buying stocks, property, and four-wheelers.

Streamlining processes

The effort is to streamline and modernize the process of issuing and managing PAN and TAN—another alphanumeric number needed for the purpose of tax deduction or collection at source.

Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number or TAN must be obtained by all persons responsible for deducting tax at source or who are required to collect tax at source.

The income tax department’s database has over 780 million PANs and 7,328,000 TANs.

The PAN 2.0 project, which seeks to improve the quality and speed of public service and grievance redressal mechanisms by leveraging the latest technologies, is expected to go live in 18 months, a person close to the development said.

The project was cleared by the cabinet committee on economic affairs in November 2024.

PAN enables linking of all transactions of a tax assessee with the department. These transactions include tax payments, tax credits, income returns, and certain specified transactions. It facilitates easy retrieval of information of assessees and matching of various investments, borrowings, and other business activities of the assessee.​

“This project will comprehensively handle all matters related to PAN and TAN, including allotment, updates/corrections, Aadhaar-PAN linking, re-issuance requests, online PAN validation, etc., as a one-stop platform,” the person said.

Mint‘s queries emailed to Larsen & Toubro on Monday remained unanswered at the time of publishing.

The government said in 2024 that this project would help optimize costs, ensure security, and facilitate operations. The e-governance project seeks to enhance taxpayers’ digital experience by upgrading the current PAN-TAN ecosystem.

The government plans to use PAN as a common identifier for multiple government agencies.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her February 2023 budget speech that for the business establishments with a PAN number, it would be used as the common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies. “This will bring ease of doing business, and it will be facilitated through a legal mandate.”