By IANS
Mumbai : A Mumbai boy could enter the record books as the youngest Indian to have a Permanent Account Number (PAN) card – issued to those who pay income tax – as he got it when he was just two months old.
Just days after media reports said a three-month-old from Orissa had become the youngest PAN cardholder, a senior income tax official here Wednesday said a boy born Jan 31 this year to a couple in Wadala in east-central Mumbai got his PAN card March 26, 56 days after his birth.
According to income tax department records, 31-year-old Sameer Thacker, who runs a stock-brokering firm S.K. Securities and Investments, had applied to the department for a PAN card for his month-and-a-half-old son Krishhey on March 14 and was issued one on March 26.
"I wanted to make some investment in my son's name so I applied for his PAN card March 14 fulfilling all the criteria laid down by the department. On March 26, I received my son's PAN card," said Thacker, who runs the stock-brokering firm in partnership with a family friend.
Thacker said he has already made an investment of Rs.100,000 in his son's name.
Though the family is not keen on publicity, Thacker's wife Krupa, who is a dentist by profession, was the first to realise that Krishhey was in fact even younger than the three-month-old PAN cardholder from Orissa after she saw media reports of the claim.
"I realised that Krishhey was in fact younger than the three-month-old holder from Orissa after I read the report in a daily. Though we don't want undue publicity, I think it is a fact that my son could indeed be the youngest holder of a PAN card in the country," the mother told reporters Wednesday.
A senior income tax official of the Mumbai circle confirmed the claim: "It is possible that Krishhey is the youngest PAN cardholder in the country. I do not know about the details of the claim from Orissa, but our records do show that Krishhey was issued a PAN card March 26."