Here's how to know if your PAN is active or deactivated; Follow these steps on the income tax department website

The government of India has identified over 11 lakh PAN cards as duplicate as on July 27th and deactivated them. In addition to these, 1,566 PAN cards are identified as fake; means that they were allotted to non-existent persons or in the name of false identities.

According to section 272B of the Income-tax Act, 1961, it is not legal to have duplicate PANs or more than one PAN. A penalty of Rs 10,000 is liable to be imposed on the person possessing more than one PAN.

Now, a doubt may arise to people about the status of their PAN. 

How to know if your PAN is active or deactivated?

Follow these steps:

1. Go to the income tax department’s website, incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/
2. On the homepage, click the ‘Services’ tab, then click ‘Know your PAN’ (located on left side of the web page).
3. A new page will open in the browser. Now, enter the following details: name, gender, religion, date of birth, registered mobile number and click ‘Submit’.
4. You will now receive a One Time Password on your registered mobile number. Enter the OTP
5. In the end, you will notice the results page displaying the status of your PAN card under ‘remarks’ column: active or not active.