Life insurance companies are unlikely to meet the September 1 deadline for furnishing the permanent account number (PAN) and details of all their customers, who have annual investment of more than 1 lakh per policy. According to a senior official from Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) that has a customer base of around 32 crore, getting PAN details of custo­mers is a difficult task. “The deadline of September 1 cannot be met,” he said.

"We have started collecting PAN card details fr­om investors for all the new policies that are being sol­d,"said the LIC official, ad­ding that many existing cu­stomers have probably yet to apply for a PAN card. Irda had asked the insurers to get the PAN card details of the investors by August 1, 2009. The deadline was extended to September 1, after representation by all the life insurers expr­essed inability to collect details on such short notice.

Irda has exempted persons with only agricultural income and NRIs from the requirement as these categories are exempted under the IT Act also for the requirement of PAN.

"Insurers shall, however, collect a signed decla­ration from persons exem­pted fro­m the PAN requ­irement, st­ating the provisions of IT Act under which they have been exempted," Irda said.