On 11 April 2017, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has tied up with Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) to issue Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) in one day to expand the facility of Doing Business for newly incorporated companies.

To further enhance, in addition to physical PAN cards, CBDT has introduced electronic PAN (e-PAN) cards, sent by email to all applicants, including individuals. The Finance Ministry said that “Applicant companies submit a common application form SPICe (INC 32) on the MCA portal and once the data of incorporation is sent to the Central Board of Direct Taxes by MCA, the PAN and TAN are issued immediately without any further intervention from the applicant.”

The move is expected to considerably improve India’s ranking in the ease of the doing Business Study of the World Bank by reducing the number of processes of registration for businesses as well as making it easier to start businesses.