PAN made sole ID number for investors

Permanent Account Number (PAN) issued by the Income Tax Department has been made the sole identification number for all participants in the securities market.

Presenting the Budget, the Union Finance Minister said that an alphanumeric prefix or suffix would be added to PAN to indicate investments in different instruments.

This means along with their PAN, investors have to include some other numbers or alphabets indicating that investments in equity, bonds or mutual funds, said an official with a Mutual fund.
The decision is welcomed by investors, as they were confused by different proposal from SEBI and mutual fund organizations to go in for separate identification numbers.

Capital market regulator SEBI had introduced MAPIN followed by Mutual fund identification number (MIN) by Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI).

According to Mr A.P. Kurian, Chairman of AMFI, details of how to go about a single number — PAN - would be finalised soon. He said mutual funds would still have to follow the KYC (know your customer) norms.