This could work as a free advertisment for the Income Tax department's drive for Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards for all earning citizens.
A couple in Orissa's steel city, Rourkela, has got a PAN card registered in the name of their three-month-old baby Ayush.
Rourkela-based journalist Saroj Rout and his wife Geetanjali, who works for the LIC, decided to get a PAN card for their baby as Ayush would soon feature in a campaign on children.
''One of my friends who runs an NGO told me that he would use my baby son as a model for his campaign on children and that he would pay a fee for it. Since my baby will earn and file returns he should have a PAN card,'' said Saroj.
Both Saroj and Geetanjali have their own PAN cards and either of them could have filed returns for the income of their son.
But they chose to go by the rulebook under which quoting the PAN is mandatory for everyone opening a bank account.
''It is always advisable for everybody to have a pan card and that too with photo pan card but it can be utilized for many purposes and as per law there is no exemption that for a child of three months no PAN card is needed,'' said Arun Kumar Sabat, Chartered Accountant, Bhubaneswar.
It's not clear how much money little Ayush will earn but this is surely a laudable move. An example that should inspire all those who earn and have a bank account but do not have PAN cards of their own as yet.
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