PAN agent customer fees: what to verify

A customer asks, “How much for a PAN card?” And you stop for a second. You know what the government fee is. You also know you spent time on the form, the photos and the follow-up. So what can you add? And can you say so out loud?

I can’t give you an extra rupee amount here, and nobody should quote you one. A seller telling you “charge this much” is not permission. What I can do is show you how to keep the payments apart, where to find the official figures, and what to get in writing before you take a rupee more than the application fee.

What three payments are at your counter?

There are three different payments in a PAN job, and mixing them up causes most of the trouble:

1. The customer’s PAN application fee.
2. Any assistance charge your terms allow you to collect.
3. The cost of your own agent service.

Don’t call them all “PAN fee”. The customer reads that as one government charge, and that’s not what it is.

SiOnline PAN / UTI PSA agent registration costs ₹1,180, as of 18 October 2026, under its PAN agent registration terms. That’s what you pay to become an agent. It is not the official fee for a customer’s application. See the UTI PSA cost structure.

SiOnline provides wallet-based UTI PSA access. You load a wallet, and each PAN application is deducted from it. Ask for the wallet deduction for your own account in writing. And don’t work it out from the official application fee, because they’re different things.

What do the official pages say?

As of 18 October 2026, UTIITSL’s PAN portal lists ₹107 for a physical card with e-PAN for dispatch within India, and ₹72 for e-PAN only. Those are published application charges. They don’t give you permission to add an assistance fee on top.

Protean’s fee table, checked on 18 October 2026, separates physical and paperless modes. It lists ₹107 and ₹72 for the physical-mode domestic options, and ₹101 and ₹66 for the paperless ones, inclusive of taxes.

So before you quote any figure, match the route and the card choice. Don’t use a paperless price for a paper application. And check whether the job is a new application, a correction or a reprint, because the same page may not cover all three.

How do you get the extra-charge rule in writing?

Ask the organisation that onboards your account. Put these questions to them:

• May this account collect an assistance charge from the customer for this service? What limit or tariff applies, and to which application types?
• Does the quoted amount include taxes? What receipt or invoice must the counter give?
• What must the customer see before agreeing to pay?
• How are a failed submission, a cancellation or a disputed charge handled?

Keep the full reply with your agreement or tariff, including the date it applies from. A reply about new applications might not cover a correction or a reprint, so say which one you mean when you ask.

What if the salesperson says one thing and the written agreement says another? Send both passages back and ask which one governs. Leave the extra-charge line blank until they answer. And if all you hear is “charge what you like”, ask for the rule that allows it.

Until the rule is clear, don’t advertise a standard assistance fee. Don’t copy what the shop down the road says it collects, either. Their arrangement, even if they’ve described it truthfully, isn’t yours. And railway agent-charge rules do not apply to PAN. What’s allowed on one service tells you nothing about another.

How do you build a quote the customer can follow?

Start by naming the work: a first PAN, a correction or a replacement card. Then write down the provider, how you’ll submit it and what the customer will get. Check those before you write any figure. A fee copied from a different type of request is the wrong starting point, even though both are “PAN”.

Then add the current application charge from the provider’s instruction. Add an assistance line only if your terms allow it, described the way they require. If a payment-method charge might apply, find out first. Don’t call something a total until you know. Then explain the breakdown in plain words, so the customer knows what each rupee is for.

A quote sheet is your own tool. It is not an official tariff. It shouldn’t carry a government seal, and it shouldn’t suggest that your assistance charge is a tax-department levy. Leave any unconfirmed line blank, and tell the customer what you still need to check.

If the route changes during preparation, tell the customer before you go on. Say which earlier assumption no longer holds, what’s needed now and what the new quote covers. Get their agreement again. And keep the first quote and the revised quote both visible, instead of erasing one. Say a customer wants a surname correction and also a replacement card. Settle the correction route first, and quote only the work you’ve actually agreed to do. If you’re unsure about any charge in that case, ask the provider.

What does your assistance cover?

Explain what you’ll do: look at the documents, prepare the application, and help with the acknowledgement and follow-up where your account allows. Keep it within what your account supports. And don’t sell “approval”. Approval isn’t yours to sell, and a paid counter service never lets anyone bypass the provider’s own checks.

Tell the customer in advance what happens if they can’t bring a required document. Decide the terms for work already done, for cancellation and for any collection that’s permitted, before you take any money. Don’t invent a “no refund” rule after the payment has come in. Give them the terms first, and keep the accepted quote with the payment record.

What about receipts and disputes?

Give the receipt or invoice your terms require. Link the customer’s payment reference to their request, but don’t call it the application acknowledgement. When the provider issues the acknowledgement, hand that over separately and tell the customer what it’s for. And don’t put a customer’s full PAN and Aadhaar in your general daily-sales sheet.

If a receipt is missing, look into the original payment before you collect again. Never create a second application just to get a new receipt.

If a customer questions a charge, ask which item they mean. Compare the receipt with the accepted quote and the written tariff. If you can’t show the authority for an item, ask the responsible provider how to put it right. Don’t relabel an assistance amount as a government fee. Don’t defend a charge by saying every local counter collects it. And never ask a customer for a password or OTP as proof of payment. Don’t promise a refund or reversal that hasn’t been confirmed.

Whenever the provider changes a charge, update the counter board, your printed quote template and your online description, all of them. Tell staff to ask when a case doesn’t match the sheet, instead of guessing.

Finally, look at your own results separately from the tariff. A low return doesn’t make a higher assistance charge allowed. If the confirmed terms don’t suit your business, think about whether to offer the service at all. Don’t add an unsupported amount to the customer’s payment.

What should you do before you quote a customer today?

Here’s a short routine you can follow at the counter, in order.

1. Open the provider’s page and read the current application fee for the exact service, route and card choice. Write down the date you looked.
2. Check your written terms for any assistance charge. If there’s nothing in writing, don’t add anything yet.
3. Write the quote on paper or on screen, line by line, with the provider fee on its own line.
4. Say the total out loud, and say what each line is for. Ask the customer if it’s clear.
5. Give the receipt, and hand over the provider’s acknowledgement separately when it comes.

It takes a few minutes, and it protects both of you. If a customer comes back later with a question, you can show them exactly what they agreed to and why. If your terms are silent on an assistance charge, you also have a clear reason for the answer you give: you’re waiting for the rule in writing.

A few things are worth saying to the customer plainly. The government fee goes to the application, not to you. Your assistance, if your terms permit a charge for it, is a separate line. And nobody at the counter can promise that an application will be approved.

What do you say when a customer pushes back on the price?

It will happen. Someone says, “The website says ₹107, why are you asking for more?” Stay calm and answer in two parts.

First, agree with the fact. Yes, the portal lists ₹107 for a physical card with e-PAN, and ₹72 for e-PAN only, as of 18 October 2026. That’s the application fee. Show them the line on your quote.

Second, explain the other line honestly, if there is one. Say what the assistance covers, and that your terms allow it. If you can’t show the rule that allows it, don’t charge it. That’s the safest answer, and the customer will respect it more than a long defence.

If the customer still isn’t happy, they’re free to apply on their own with the provider. Don’t argue and don’t pressure them. A quiet, clear counter is how people decide to come back.

Questions agents ask

Is the difference between my collection and wallet debit my permitted margin?

It’s arithmetic, but it doesn’t prove the collection was permitted. Find out the customer tariff first. A margin someone suggests to you is not an entitlement, and it is not an income promise either.

Does a government application price include my shop work?

Don’t assume either answer from the headline price. Ask the provider to separate the application fee from the counter charges that are permitted, and show the customer the result.

Can I charge more if the customer wants it done quickly?

Only if your written terms allow an assistance charge, and then only as that charge is described. Speed isn’t a separate fee you can invent. Ask your provider first.

Where do you go from here?

If you’re thinking of the service, ask SiOnline about UTI PSA registration and ask for the customer-charge rules along with the account costs, so you see both before you pay. Use SiOnline support for account terms it can confirm. For the published application charge, use the receiving provider’s official information. If a quoted amount fits neither, ask where it comes from.

Sources

• UTIITSL PAN services, fees and revised-form notice, retrieved 18 October 2026.
• Protean PAN application processing-fee table, retrieved 18 October 2026.

Re-check forms, fees and provider instructions before submitting an application.