Open Letter to the CBDT

By Anupam Saraph1
Chairman and Members2
Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT)
North Block,
New Delhi
Dear Sirs, Madams,
Subject: Filing of Income Tax Without Aadhaar
You allotted me a Permanent Account Number to track my financial transactions and returns more than 25
years ago. You know from my returns history that I have filed my Income Tax returns for more than 25
years.
Although, as always, I have paid all my taxes fully, this year you made it impossible for me to file my
returns without an Aadhaar. You did not provide any instructions or a means to file them with the Permanent
Account Number, as you have done for decades, without insisting on Aadhaar. I prepared my tax returns,
as usual, and mailed them to you with a copy to my Assessing Officer.
Instead of acknowledging my returns, you have been spamming me with emails declaring that “You have
been a regular filer. However we couldn’t help but notice that you were missing this year. So here is a little
reminder.”
I wrote to you earlier this year, and to your predecessors in 2018, highlighting that you undoubtedly know
that neither the UIDAI, nor any other government authority have verified, certified or audited the
demographic or biometric data associated with any Aadhaar number. I pointed out that Justice PB Sawant,
retired justice of the Supreme Court, had highlighted that at least 58 crore Aadhaar numbers are suspect
and enable money laundering and siphoning of subsidies and money from bank accounts. Aadhaar,
therefore, cannot validate any PAN holder.
I also wrote that you must also have taken cognizance of the fact that the while the UIDAI used PAN, EPIC,
Passports, Drivers Licenses, Ration Cards as the documents to issue Aadhaar, the UIDAI cannot provide
any information about the primary documents used as Proof of Identity or Address to obtain an Aadhaar,
or their authenticity and validity. Furthermore, the UIDAI has told the Delhi and Mumbai High Courts that
they cannot identify anyone uniquely with the biometrics they store, and that it is not the role of anyone in
UIDAI to identify anyone.
Aadhaar was also issued using PAN as a Proof of Identity. So, by requiring Aadhaar to ensure the
validity of PAN, you are legitimizing fake PAN used to obtain Aadhaar. At the same time, you are

1
Dr. Anupam Saraph is a Future Designer, Professor of Systems and Decision Sciences and an internationally
renowned expert in governance of complex systems. He can be reached @anupamsaraph.
2
P.C. Mody Chairman, CBDT chairmancbdt@nic.in, pramod.mody@gov.in, girdhar.sharma@nic.in
Adiyta Vikram Member (IT&C), CBDT Aditya.vikram59@gov.in , kumarlaljeet1234@gmail.com
Neena Kumar Member (Admn.)(A/C), Member (R&TPS) neena.kumar@gov.in, hema.kumar65@nic.in,
hk.arora@nic.in
Akhilesh Ranjan Member (L) ranjan.akhilesh@nic.in, kumarkavita1963@gmail.com
Prasana Kumar Das Member (A&J) dash.prasana@gov.in, klrajora.edu@nic.in
declaring invalid PAN that were obtained legitimately and have several years, even decades of verified tax
records. 139AA, therefore, is the best way to legitimize millions of benami PAN.
Your data indicates that such a linkage, forced by 139AA, will merge 18,38,06,056 PANs (39% of all PAN)
that are older than 5 years, a large proportion of which are taxpayers and filers and thus been verified
multiple times, with 20,74,93,867 PANs (44.15%) that are less than 5 years old, majority of who have no
tax history. While 99.94% of PAN older than 5 years have been allotted with IDs other than Aadhaar,
72.52% of PAN less than 5 years have been allotted with Aadhaar as the Proof of identity. You will
recognize that this destroys the intent behind 139A(2) requiring that the Assessing Officer to allot the PAN.
Once an Aadhaar is linked to a PAN, or used in place of a PAN, the government replaces the PAN as the
primary identifier of taxpayers with Aadhaar. This makes those allotted a PAN based on an Aadhaar
indistinguishable from those whose PAN was allotted using other IDs and had a tax history. Further, it
becomes impossible to establish the identity of the person holding a financial instrument or undertaking a
financial transaction as the Aadhaar linked to a PAN can alter the identity of the Aadhaar linked PAN holder
by processes that are not controlled, certified, verified or audited by the CBDT. This makes benami PAN,
and consequently benami transactions even more difficult, if not impossible, to trace.
Once Aadhaar is linked to financial instruments it also enables the money transfers using Aadhaar payment
systems that have volatile mapping to bank accounts and can make money transfers untraceable, facilitating
money laundering. With 139AA, therefore, millions of benami PAN used for parking black money, parking
bribes, siphoning subsidy from the Consolidated Fund of India, making fake insurance claims, owning or
transacting assets, and creating NPAs through fake borrowing will remain untraceable. India will have
replaced Panama as a tax haven. The increase in PAN numbers linked to Aadhaar creates a false sense
of identification while legitimizing money laundering through millions of benami PAN.
I had brought to your notice that the continued use of Aadhaar places everyone in the country in
disproportional risk and the above is enough cause to question what legitimate purpose is accomplished by
using Aadhaar. I had reasoned that, undoubtedly, you too would conclude that, under these circumstances,
the use of Aadhaar does not and cannot serve any legitimate, proportionate, legal purpose, public
interest, or any national interest. I had also urged you to end the exposure of every Indian to
unprecedented and disproportionate risk created by requiring them to obtain an Aadhaar, link an Aadhaar
to PAN or any financial transactions, or allowing the use of Aadhaar for any financial transactions.
I am disappointed that you have not taken steps to end the criminalization of the financial system in
India and are treating genuine taxpayers as criminals.
I call you, as the guardian of national interest and public interest, to free every tax payer from
disproportionate risks of Aadhaar, and take immediate steps to protect every tax payer who has filed
returns for several decades, the financial system, and the country, from the fraud of Aadhaar. I call
you to set up an expert committee drawn from persons with no interests in Aadhaar and related
technologies, and monitored by the Supreme Court to recommend restoring the financial system
back to safety and to investigate how the financial system of the country was misled and corrupted
to such an extent.
Sincerely,
Anupam Saraph, Ph.D.
Professor and Future Designer