However, booking a five star hotel or banquet hall for a wedding or a party may not enjoy such a breather. Undertaking foreign trips, including luxury holiday cruises, could also require the mandatory quoting of the PAN from June 1.
Officials said the revenue department was finalising a list of items for the inclusion under PAN. The ministry is also considering including financial transactions beyond a certain limit under the Annual Information Returns.
At present, Income-Tax rule 114 B, which makes the quoting of the PAN compulsory, covers 16 kinds of transactions, including the sale or purchase of immovable property valued at Rs 5 lakh, the sale or purchase of an automobile, time-bound deposits exceeding Rs 50,000, the opening of a bank account, application for the installation of a telephone connection and so on.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in the Budget this year, has proposed the introduction of a new sub-section, 1B, which allows the government to notify any class or classes of persons for the allotment of a PAN.
He also proposed to amend the sub-section allowing an assessing officer to suo moto allot a PAN. In last year's Budget, the finance minister had introduced the Banking Cash Transaction Tax on withdrawals of over Rs 25,000 from a current account.
He had introduced the Annual Information return where the returns had to be filed annually for seven kinds of transactions, including the purchase or sale of property of Rs 30 lakh and above.
