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Aadhaar rebels find ways to avoid PAN linkage -Namita Devidayal & Lubna Kably

-The Times of India

MUMBAI: In a quiet display of dissent, numerous taxpayers across the country have opted to file their tax returns manually, via snail-mail, rather than get an Aadhaar card. Many others filed their returns online early, prior to June 30, when the Aadhaar linkage was not mandatory.

"Technically you should be able to file online even if you don't have an Aadhaar card, but the e-filing system does not allow it," said docu filmmaker Rakesh Sharma, who considers the Aadhaar requirement a potential violation of privacy and a possible tool for state surveillance and data mining.

The I-T department's e-filing portal does not accept returns without an Aadhaar or an Aadhaar application number.

In some instances, even an application number is being rejected - which according to I-T officials could be owing to an error by the tax filer or a temporary technical glitch.

Thus, those without an Aadhaar or its application number are caught in a catch-22 situation, as taxpayers with an income of above Rs 5 lakh have to mandatorily file their I-T returns online.

A Bengaluru-based consultant said she and her husband, as well as many of their friends, refused to get the Aadhaar card and filed their returns in early June. "Aadhaar started off as something optional and we kept reading about data getting stolen. So a lot of us were concerned about giving our biometrics to the private operators given the potential for identity theft." She is also livid about the relentless text messages she receives from her bank threatening to freeze her accounts if she does not link them to Aadhaar, despite the fact that this has not yet been mandated.

Chennai-based environmentalist Nityanand Jayaraman, who is filing manual returns, said he has a problem with Aadhaar as he simply doesn't trust the government. "I do not like the fact that it is bullying people into taking an Aadhaar for everything. If it wants to link Aadhaar with anything, it has to be with voter ID."

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