Reference

GSTIN vs PAN: how they relate

Your PAN sits inside your GSTIN. Here is exactly where, and what that means.

A PAN is a 10-character permanent account number issued for income tax purposes. A GSTIN is a 15-character GST registration number. They are not alternatives — the GSTIN is built around the PAN.

Characters 3 to 12 of a GSTIN are the holder's PAN, unchanged. Characters 1 and 2 are the state code, character 13 is the entity number for that PAN within that state, character 14 is normally the letter Z, and character 15 is a checksum.

Two consequences follow. First, one PAN can support many GSTINs: one per state of registration, and more than one within a state where separate business verticals are registered. Second, you can read the PAN straight out of any GSTIN, which is how a GSTIN and a PAN on the same invoice can be cross-checked against each other.

If the ten characters embedded in a supplier's GSTIN do not match the PAN printed on its invoice, one of the two numbers is wrong.

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