PAN procedure eased for NRIs

Like resident investors, NRIs also require Personal Account Numbers to operate accounts and invest in mutual funds and other financial dealings.PANs as they are called are mandatory to file returns such as interest from NRO accounts, capital gains, rents etc, but to obtain a PAN required a menu of proof including identity verification, addresses in India and abroad, designation and code of Assessing Officer of the Income Tax Department and details of a Representative Assessee.
The Representative Assessee was a particularly onerous rquirement because the Tax Act specified that the Assessee is subject to the same duties, responsibilities and liabilities as the NRI, if his client fails to pay his taxes, ipso facto making the Assessee responsible for the NRI's obligations and liabilities.
Simply put, an NRI who does not have a person in India prepared to be responsible as his Representative is not in a position to invest in the stock market.The complicated system has now been revised after representations by NRIs and PIOs and PANs are now issued based on a copy of the NRI's passport, without the necessity to provide a Representative Assessee.