Biometric PAN cards to come soon
New Delhi: Biometric permanent account number (PAN) cards will soon be given to all new income tax payers in the country. The biometric cards will have enhanced security features like fingerprints or retinal scans, aimed at checking duplicate cards and better tax compliance.

The process of eliminating about 13 lakh duplicate PAN cards will soon be over after which which all new PAN cards will only be biometric said Finance Minister P Chidambaram after inaugurating a Chief Income Tax Commissioners conference.

Current PAN card holders will be persuaded to switch over to biometric PAN cards in their own interest he said while earlier PAN cards would remain valid.

The ministry is hoping to introduce iris-based biometric PAN cards to all new applicants once the present PAN data is updated.
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Kamal Nath for quick tax relief to exporters
New Delhi: Commerce minister Kamal Nath has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention for speedy notification of service tax waiver for exporters citing concern over the decline in growth of exports in rupee terms. Nath said it was expected that notification for this is likely to be issued shortly.

Nath had announced the measure in the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy in April, and was to be implemented within a month. The move was aimed at benefitting exporters as the rupee has risen by 6-14 per cent against major currencies like the US dollar, pound and euro, since August last year.

During April-May 2007-08, exports grew 18 per cent in dollar terms, but only 6 per cent in rupee terms.
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