PAN Misuse: Unknown GST, Company or Loan Linked to Your PAN

Who this guide is for

This guide is for any individual in India who has discovered that their Permanent Account Number (PAN) appears to have been used by someone else without their knowledge. The signs vary, but the most common are:

• An unknown GST registration (GSTIN) issued in your name or on your PAN that you never applied for.
• A company or LLP on the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) database that lists you as a director, partner or shareholder when you never agreed to it.
• A loan, credit card or current account in your name that you never opened, often discovered through a credit report or a recovery call.
• Entries in your AIS or Form 26AS showing income, sales, TDS or high-value transactions you do not recognise.
• An income tax notice about income or business activity that is not yours.

Your PAN is a single identity number that ties together your tax records, many bank accounts, your GST profile, and your role in companies. That makes it powerful for you, and unfortunately useful to fraudsters. The good news is that every one of these systems has a way to check what is recorded and a way to dispute what is wrong.

This guide does not cover ordinary mistakes in your own records, such as a TDS entry your real employer reported late. For that, see the related guides on AIS and Form 26AS issues. This guide is specifically about misuse by another person.

What you can do this weekend

Friday evening

Log in to the income tax portal at incometax.gov.in. Open your Annual Information Statement (AIS) and your Form 26AS. Read every entry. Note anything you do not recognise: a GST turnover figure, a TDS deductor you have never dealt with, a high-value purchase or sale, or interest from a bank where you have no account. Save each screen as a dated PDF.

Next, search the suspect GST number. Go to gst.gov.in, open Search Taxpayer > Search by GSTIN/UIN, and enter the GSTIN if you have it. If you only have a PAN, the same search page lets you search by PAN to list any GSTINs issued against it. Note the trade name, legal name, registration date and jurisdiction. Screenshot it with the date visible.

Write a simple incident note for yourself: what you found, where, and when. This single timeline will anchor every complaint you file over the coming days.

Saturday

Search the MCA portal at mca.gov.in for your name. Use the company and director search to see whether you are listed as a director, designated partner or signatory anywhere. If your Director Identification Number (DIN) was created without your consent, or a company shows you as an officer, record the company name and CIN.

Pull your credit report. Every individual is entitled to a free credit report each year from each licensed credit bureau. Review every loan account and credit card. Flag anything you never applied for, and note the lender name, account number and the date the account was opened.

Now you have a clear picture of how far the misuse goes. Organise your screenshots into folders by system: Income Tax, GST, MCA, Credit. This order will match the complaints you file.

If a recovery agent or lender is already calling you about a loan you never took, stay calm and do not pay anything. Tell them in writing that the account is fraudulent and that you are filing complaints. Know your rights when dealing with recovery agents through our guide on recovery agent rights and limits.

Sunday

Draft your complaints. Start with a single identity-theft complaint that you can adapt for the police or cyber portal, the GST department, the credit bureau and the lender. Use the template in this guide as a starting point.

Prepare the documents you will attach: PAN copy, Aadhaar or other ID, your incident note, and the screenshots from each system. Keep a master copy of the bundle so every complaint carries the same evidence.

If the misuse touches your income tax record, also draft your AIS feedback notes for Monday: for each wrong entry you will mark it as not relating to you. Then book a short paid consultation with a Chartered Accountant for the week ahead, especially if a tax notice has already arrived.

Documents and evidence checklist

Step-by-step action plan

Step 1 — Confirm the misuse across all four systems

Do not act on a single alarming entry alone. Check all four record systems so you know the full scope: AIS and Form 26AS on the income tax portal, Search Taxpayer on the GST portal, company and director search on the MCA portal, and your credit report. Save dated screenshots from each. The pattern matters: a fake GSTIN plus an unknown current account, for example, often points to a fraudulent invoicing operation run on your PAN.

Step 2 — File an identity-theft complaint with the police or cyber portal

Treat PAN misuse as identity theft. Where the misuse is clearly online or financial, report it on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in or call the cyber helpline 1930. For wider misuse, file a written complaint at your local police station and ask for an acknowledgement or FIR copy. State the facts plainly: your PAN was used without consent to obtain a GST registration / a loan / a company role, and attach your evidence. This complaint reference becomes your strongest lever with every other authority.

Step 3 — Report the fake GST registration to the GST department

For an unknown GSTIN on your PAN, raise a grievance on the GST self-service portal and write to the jurisdictional GST officer shown on the Search Taxpayer page. State that the registration was obtained by misusing your PAN, that you never applied for or operated it, and request cancellation and an inquiry. Attach your ID and your police or cyber complaint. Keep the grievance ticket number. If a GST notice has been issued to that GSTIN, do not ignore it — a tax professional should help you respond that the registration is not yours.

Step 4 — Dispute unknown loans with the credit bureau and the lender

For any loan or card you did not take, raise a dispute in two places at once: with the credit bureau that issued the report, and directly with the lender named in the entry. Say clearly that you never applied for or received the credit and that your identity was misused. Attach your police or cyber complaint and ID. The bureau and lender are required to investigate and correct entries found to be fraudulent. If the entry persists, see our guide on escalating a bank issue to the RBI for the complaint route, and read about getting written responses from lenders.

Step 5 — Address the MCA company entry

If you are wrongly shown as a director, partner or signatory, file a complaint with the MCA stating that your identity and PAN were misused and that you never consented to the appointment. Ask for your removal and an inquiry into how the DIN or appointment was processed. Keep your complaint reference. Because director liability can be serious, take professional advice before signing any form or response to the company concerned.

Step 6 — Fix your income tax record

Open your AIS and submit feedback on each wrong entry, choosing the option that the information does not relate to you. If you received an income tax notice, respond on the portal explaining the misuse and attaching your complaint references. Also raise an income tax grievance through the portal's grievance facility, summarising the misuse and the steps you have taken. For more on correcting income records, see our companion guides on high-value transactions that are not yours and income tax demand and refund-adjustment notices.

Step 7 — Protect your linked bank accounts

Misuse of your PAN can come with misuse of your bank details. Confirm which of your genuine accounts are active and which Aadhaar is seeded for benefits using our guide on checking DBT and Aadhaar-seeding status. If you bank with a public sector bank and suspect a fraudulent account was opened there, you may later use RTI to ask for records — see the RTI section below.

Step 8 — Get professional help and keep following up

PAN misuse can spread across tax, GST, company and credit systems at the same time, and the stakes can be high. Engage a Chartered Accountant or a lawyer early, especially if there is a tax demand, a GST notice, or a director liability question. Keep a simple tracker of every complaint, its reference number, the date filed, and the response deadline. Follow up in writing the moment a deadline passes, and escalate using the ladder below.

Escalation ladder

Copy-paste complaint template

Replace the text in square brackets with your own details before sending. Adapt the same letter for the police/cyber portal, the GST officer, the credit bureau and the lender.

When RTI can help

The Right to Information Act, 2005 applies to public authorities. In a PAN-misuse case, that includes the GST department, the income tax department, the police, and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. RTI is useful in specific, information-gathering situations:

• Getting the documents behind a fake GST registration: File an RTI with the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) of the jurisdictional GST Commissionerate asking for the application, supporting documents and approval record for the GSTIN issued on your PAN. These reveal who applied and what address and proofs were used.
• Tracking action on your complaint: If you have complained to a government office and heard nothing after a reasonable time, RTI can ask for the status of your complaint and copies of any notings or orders made on it.
• Police complaint status: After a reasonable period, you may ask the police authority for the status of action taken on your complaint, within the limits that apply to ongoing investigations.

To file an RTI online, see our step-by-step RTI filing guide. The public information officer must respond within the time the RTI Act allows. If you get no reply or an unsatisfactory one, use the first appeal under Section 19 and, for the full appeal path, our first and second appeal guide. You can also escalate a stuck government grievance through CPGRAMS together with RTI. For deeper strategy, The RTI Playbook covers using RTI in complex disputes.

When RTI will not help

RTI has clear limits in a PAN-misuse case:

• Private banks and lenders: A private bank, NBFC or credit bureau is not a public authority, so RTI does not apply to their internal records. Use the credit-bureau dispute process and the RBI complaint route instead.
• RTI cannot cancel anything: RTI gives you information; it does not cancel a fake GSTIN, remove a fraudulent loan, or delete a wrong director entry. Those need the cancellation, dispute and correction processes described above.
• Investigation-stage limits: Some records connected to an active police investigation may be withheld. Use RTI for status and for documents that can be shared, not as a way to force disclosure of an ongoing inquiry.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Panicking and paying: If a recovery agent demands payment for a loan you never took, do not pay to make them stop. Paying can be treated as accepting the debt. Dispute it in writing instead.
• Applying for a new PAN: You may not hold more than one PAN, and a new PAN does not erase misuse on your existing one. Keep your PAN and fix the records.
• Filing only one complaint: PAN misuse usually crosses several systems. A single complaint to one office will not clean up the others. File in parallel — police, GST, credit bureau, lender, MCA, income tax.
• Not saving dated evidence: Records can change once you start complaining. Save dated screenshots and PDFs before you act, so you can prove what existed at the start.
• Ignoring a tax notice: A notice issued because of a fake GSTIN or fake income will not go away if ignored. Respond on the portal that the entry is not yours, attach your complaints, and get a CA to help.
• Treating RTI as a fix: RTI gathers information; it does not cancel registrations or remove loans. Use it to support your complaints, not to replace them.
• Going it alone on high-stakes issues: Director liability, a large GST demand, or a sizeable fraudulent loan are not do-it-yourself matters. Spend on a CA or lawyer early; it is far cheaper than the exposure.

For related income-record problems that are not misuse, our guide on responding to a defective return notice may also help.