PAN Card Holders To Get MIN Exemption

The prevailing confusion over the mutual fund identification number (MIN) is expected to end shortly. It is expected that all cardholders of PAN, the alpha-numerical number issued by the Income Tax Department, would be exempted from having another identification number in the form of MIN. On the other hand, a MIN would be required for all those investors who do not have a PAN but want to invest more than Rs 50,000 in a mutual fund scheme.
Finance minister P Chidambaram had said that PAN would be the core number and MIN will act as a prefix or a suffix to the PAN.CVL, the subsidiary of Central Depository Services, which was issuing the MIN, would upgrade its systems to match the criteria mandated by the ministry. PAN displays the name, date of birth and photograph of the cardholder, while the Income Tax Department has stored all relevant information of the holder. Upgradation of systems by CVL would involve matching these relevant information and creating a combined data base for meeting know your client norms.