Question : FAKE PAN RACKET

(a) whether it is a fact that a racket for making and selling fake Permanent Account Number (PAN) by tampering with the data has been unearthed;

(b) whether it is a fact that freelance data entry operators hired in the offices of various Income Tax Officers to help them in making PAN cards have been the culprits in this case;

(c) if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the income tax officers had warned the Government when the Job was outsourced, about the danger of given access to the freelance operators to the offical data; and

(e) if so, the details and Government’s reaction thereto?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI S.S. PALANIMANICKAM)

(a) An instance of tampering with data by some private persons by unauthorizedly obtaining password of some Assessing Officers at Delhi came to the notice of Income Tax Department in December, 2004.

(b) The persons involved in this case were not hired by the Deparment.

(c) Not applicable in view of the reply to (b) above.

(d) No freelance data entry operator has been aurhtorised access to departmental PAN database.

(e) Not applicable in view of reply to (d) above.