Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Tuesday told the Parliament that more than 11 lakh permanent account numbers had been deleted or deactivated in cases where multiple PANs were found allotted to one person. Gangwar also said that more than 1,500 PANs had been identified as fake as they had been allotted to either non- existent people or were in the names of persons with false identities.

“One PAN for one person is the guiding principle for allotment of PAN,” Gangwar said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. “As on July 27, 11,44,211 PANs have been identified and deleted or de-activated in cases where multiple PANs were found allotted to one person.”

An assessing officer can delete or de-activate the PAN through a software application.