An advertisement issued by the Income Tax Department states that all existing tax payers and those assessable for tax who have not applied for or have yet been allocated a 10-digit Permanent Account Number (PAN) under the New Series are required apply for the same in Form 49-A.

Department officials clarify that only those assessees who have not applied for Permanent Account Numbers (PAN) need to apply for fresh numbers. Those who have already applied for the number under the new series need not do so again.

Tax payers who hold the earlier GIC numbers of old permanent account numbers are also required to file afresh.

The PAN, under the new series, is a ten-digit computerised number, meant for centralising all tax return records. As per sub-section (4) of Section 139-A of the Income Tax Act, obtaining a PAN under new series is mandatory for all income tax payers. It will replace the earlier series, wherein records are complied on a regional or local basis.

Another factor irking payers is that the income tax form specifies that only black and white photographs are to be pasted on the forms. This, assesses say, is impractical as virtually no photo-studio is keen to take orders for black and white prints.

Income tax officials, however, say that colour photographs can be used on forms and that they have received no orders to accept only black and white photographs.

The department, however, insists on the use of black ink only for filling up columns as they say that it required for scanning the form by computers.

Refuting complaints from assesses about non-availability of forms, officials say that they are available free of cost from IT offices and even from stationary shops, where however, it is priced. Officials add that the department has no objections to blank forms being photocopied for use by others.

Meanwhile, at the last date for filing tax returns for the financial year 1996-97 nears, assesses are making a beeline for IT offices. With IT officers ruling out any extension in time for filing returns after April 30, the department's counters are a witness to long queues and jostling crowds.

Going by their past experiences, officials say that about 80 per cent of the assessees come forward during the last few days to file returns, failing which they would elicit a penalty of up to Rs. 10,000 for each default.