Naveen urges Modi to exempt PAN card for deposits above Rs 50,000 in schedule areas
18 November,Bhubaneswar
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to exempt the Scheduled Areas in the state from the insistence on PAN card Number for deposits above Rs 50,000.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, Patnaik said such a step would save people in the schedule areas, majority of them being the tribals from repeated visits to the Banks which they are forced to undertake at present The chief minister said 23 per cent of the state’s population belongs to the Scheduled Tribe category residing mostly in 44 per cent of the area.
He said the Tribal communities who are not used to the banking system traditionally kept their income and savings in their homes also due to poor presence of Banks in the Schedule Areas.
In Odisha even today, out of 6500 odd Gram Panchayats almost 4400 GPs have no presence of Scheduled Banks. A large majority of these un-serviced GPs fall in the Schedule Areas, inhabited primarily by the Scheduled Tribe communities. In fact, almost 90 per cent of them do not have a PAN card.
The chief minister said subsequent to the de-monetization steps taken by the Central Government, the recent directives to Banks for insisting on PAN Number for deposits of more than Rs 50,000 is putting tribal families to extreme hardship.
Due to withdrawal of legal tender of Rs 500 and Rs1000 denominations, they are now forced to deposit their legitimate earnings in banks but lack of Banks in these areas is forcing them to travel far off distances to make their deposits.
In case of higher deposits, the people living in Scheduled Areas are facing immense hardship as they do not have the PAN Card, Patnaik said and requested the Prime Minister to use his good offices and kindly exempt the Scheduled Areas of the state from the insistence on PAN card Number for deposits above Rs 50,000.
This would also lead to less crowd in Banks making their operations smoother,he said adding that the decision will mitigate the undue hardship to the people living in scheduled areas most of whom belong to tribal communities.BM