Over Rs 600 crore has been collected in penalties from July 1 to January 31 from Indian residents who delayed linking their Permanent Account Number, or PAN, with Aadhaar, the Centre told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

Union Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in a written reply to Parliament that as of January 29, a total of 11.48 crore persons had not linked their PAN with Aadhaar. This number does not include categories of individuals for whom it is not mandatory to link the two documents – those who stay in Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya or Assam, those categorised as “non-residents” under the Income Tax, those above 80 years of age and those who are not Indian citizens.

PAN is a ten-digit alphanumeric number issued by the Income Tax Department that has to be cited while filing tax returns and while carrying out certain financial transactions. Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit identity number tied to an individual’s fingerprints, face and eye scan.

All those who were allotted a PAN as of July 1, 2017, had to link it to Aadhaar by June 30. The PAN of those who do not comply with the requirement becomes inoperative, which means that they cannot receive income tax refunds or interest on the refunds.

Citizens can make their PAN operative again by paying a late fee of Rs 1,000.

In September 2018, the Supreme Court held that a provision requiring citizens to link PAN with Aadhaar was legally valid. It also upheld the passage of the Aadhaar Bill as a money bill in the Lok Sabha. However, the court struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which allowed private entities to use Aadhaar for verification purposes.