Learn your Pan Card 10 digit Numbering System

The PAN(Permanent Account Number) Card which has now become a mandatory identity proof by the government has its own semantics behind its numbering system.

PAN is a 10 digit alpha-numeric number in which the first five characters are alphabets,next four characters are numbers and the last character is again an alphabet.Each character in PAN has its own meaning which has been explained below:

PAN Explanation:

The Permanent Account Number has been divided into five groups as:

1) The first three characters are the normal alphabetic series starting from AAA and running upto ZZZ.

2) The fourth character represents the status of the PAN card holder.Its one of the most important character in Pan Card number and those who deal in PAN cards usually look at this character only to identify your status.

Now the status can be like

C - represents a Company

P - represents a Person

H - stands for Hindu Undivided Family

F - represents a Firm

A - stands for Association of Persons

T - represents a Trust

B - represents Body of Individuals

L - stands for Local Authority

J - stands for Artificial Juridical Person

G - stands for Government

3) The fifth character represents the first character of the PAN holder's Surname.

For eg- If your name is say Arindom Banerjee,then the fifth character of your PAN will be 'B'.

4) The next four characters are again the normal sequential numbers starting from 0001 and running upto 9999.

5) The last character in the PAN is an alphabetic check digit.

Though its not necessary for you to learn the significance of every digit of your PAN for now,yet surely the knowledge might be useful in the long run to avoid the frauds.