PAN agent number, PSA ID and code explained

A customer says, “Give me your agent number.” A support person says, “Send me your ID.” Same word, different things. If you hand over the wrong one, you can lose time, or worse, share something you shouldn’t.

Before you reply to either, ask what the number is for. Do they want to call the counter? Do they want to find your account? Or are they trying to trace one particular application?

Which number is which?

Use the table below as a working guide, then confirm the exact label with the provider that gave you your account. Don’t assume another provider uses the same words.

UTIITSL separates application tracking, card reprinting and PAN applications on its PAN services page, checked on 18 October 2026. So a reference that belongs to one task shouldn’t stand in for another.

How do you find the right ID for sign-in?

SiOnline provides a wallet-based PSA ID that you reach through the SiOnline portal connected to UTI. Agents don’t have direct UTI access. Use the UTI PSA login guide to find your route.

Open the onboarding message you received through your verified provider contact and see which service it names. Keep an account note with the provider’s name, the official login address and the ID you were given. Store the password somewhere safe, like a password manager, not in a shared counter notebook next to your public phone number.

If that onboarding message has several codes in it, don’t guess. Ask support to label each one. A good question is: “Which identifier should I quote for my SiOnline account, and which one belongs to the customer’s PAN application?” Don’t try every code in the login form one by one.

Here’s an example. Picture a counter owner with an old onboarding email and a newer payment receipt. The onboarding record tells you which account it is. The payment receipt belongs to a payment enquiry. Pasting the receipt number into the login field and changing digits until something works won’t get you in, and it won’t help anyone find the problem. If your account details may have changed, say so to support instead of asking some unrelated seller to “convert” the number.

After you sign in, check that you’ve reached the account you meant to reach before you take a customer’s work. If a page you don’t recognise seems to want another registration payment, verify the original arrangement before paying anything.

How do you track an application?

UTIITSL’s General FAQs, checked on 18 October 2026, say applicants can track an application with its acknowledgement or reference number on the designated Protean or UTIITSL portal. That’s an application record. It isn’t your agent code. Protean’s own public tracker separately asks for a 15-digit numeric acknowledgement number, but that describes its tracker, not a format that every PAN-service identifier follows.

A customer may bring a pile of receipts. Ask which request they want chased: a first application, a correction or a replacement card. Keep a payment reference and an acknowledgement separately labelled, even if they were created in the same visit. If you can’t tell which is which, ask the receiving provider to identify them.

Say a customer brings an older new-PAN acknowledgement and a recent correction receipt. If their question is about the correction, read the correction’s reference. Don’t tell them it’s done because the earlier card was dispatched. What matters is the link between the number and the work requested.

Don’t build an application reference out of the customer’s PAN, phone number or a payment message. If the acknowledgement is missing, ask the filing channel how it recovers one. And don’t treat a missing reference as proof the application was rejected. It just means you can’t find the reference yet.

What should you ask when someone requests a customer’s PAN?

Settle the service first. UTIITSL’s public portal separates new applications from change or correction, reprint and e-PAN services. The official Form 93 (earlier Form 49A) hosted by Protean includes a declaration that the applicant does not already possess a PAN. So keep a lost physical card separate from a first allotment.

For a task on an existing record, ask the customer to check the number against their own papers. Don’t copy it from another customer’s file, and don’t try to rebuild a number you can only partly see. Let the customer handle their own authentication. Use only what the task needs. When you send a screenshot, hide PAN and Aadhaar details unless the verified support channel explains why they’re needed.

What evidence should you give support?

Start with the task: account access, application status, a payment problem or a customer appointment. Then give the relevant non-secret identifier through the verified route, the exact page address and the message shown on screen.

• Account problem: send your agent ID and the page address. Say whether you can’t sign in, or can sign in but can’t submit an application. Include the error text with customer details hidden.
• Application problem: keep the receipt and reference with the customer’s file. Say which provider handled the request and what the status notice says, then ask a precise next question. If you have no acknowledgement, say so. Don’t fill the gap with your agent login ID.
• Lost onboarding record: use SiOnline support and let the staff identify your account through their verification process. Don’t pay a stranger who says they can search a national database of agent codes.

A message that works might read: “I can open the SiOnline sign-in page but need to know which identifier belongs to my PAN account. My onboarding record uses two labels. Please tell me which one your verification process needs.” That’s only a suggested wording, not a description of how the provider handles recoveries. Never put a password or OTP in the message.

After support replies, write the answer in the note it belongs to, either your account note or the customer’s case note. Keep those two apart. An answer about your login doesn’t settle a customer’s processing problem, and a customer’s PAN allotment doesn’t explain a strange wallet entry.

If an unexpected caller asks for an agent code, ask which organisation they’re from and what they need it for. If you can’t establish that, end the call. Then check using contact details you already hold, not the number they give you.

What can a code not prove?

A screenshot with an agent code in it doesn’t show which portal will accept that code. It also doesn’t show that the holder can approve PAN applications. UTIITSL’s public notice, retrieved on 18 October 2026, names UTIITSL and Protean as the entities appointed by the Income Tax Department to receive and process PAN applications and related services.

SiOnline supports its agent channel. It doesn’t issue a customer’s PAN. So before you buy an account from anyone, ask for the provider’s identity, a working login route and the registration terms in writing. Don’t judge a code by how it looks.

What do you give a customer who wants a number to reach you?

Ask what they plan to do with it. For directions, opening hours or an appointment, give the counter’s public contact details, not a screenshot of your account. A short visiting message works well: shop name, location and the hours someone can answer a PAN enquiry.

If they’ve already submitted work, ask them to keep their own receipt and to quote its reference when they contact you. Don’t make your public phone number the only detail in every customer file. You need to tell apart the person who wants directions from the person who wants news on a particular submission.

If the shop uses a personal mobile as its public contact, decide who answers it during the advertised hours. Don’t call it an official helpline. Label the provider’s own customer-care number separately, so customers know which organisation they’re calling.

If a customer sends an identity document in reply to a simple appointment message, steer the chat back to what’s needed. For an opening enquiry, “I need to replace a lost card” is enough. Nobody needs a public photo of the PAN card.

How do you change contact details without mixing up the records?

If your public shop phone changes, update the customer-facing details yourself. Then ask your provider separately how to update the registered account contact. Editing a public listing doesn’t change the account’s authentication contact. And a customer’s PAN contact update is not a change to your agent profile.

Before you hand the counter to another operator, go over the account permissions and the change process with the provider. Keep three things apart: the shop’s public contact note, the agent-account note and the unfinished customer records. Don’t pass on a loose spreadsheet of numbers. The next person should know what each identifier is for, without seeing customer identity details they don’t need.

A quick check before you share any number

Before you say or send a number, ask yourself three things. Who is asking? What do they want to do with it? Which record does the number belong to: the shop, your account, a payment or a customer’s application?

If you can’t answer all three, hold back and ask. It costs a few seconds. Handing over the wrong identifier can cost you a lot more, and a number sent in a chat can’t be taken back. When in doubt, write the number down on the correct note first, then decide who needs to see it.

Questions agents ask

Is my mobile number my PSA ID? Don’t assume that from the words “agent number”. Check the account record and the login instructions for your route. A customer-facing contact number and an account identifier do different jobs, even if a portal lets you sign in with a mobile number.

Can I track an application with my agent code? No. Start with the customer’s application receipt and the provider’s tracking instructions. Ask support if you can’t work out the reference.

Can I give a customer my login ID as my “agent number”? No. Give them the counter’s public phone number. The login ID is for the account, not for customers.

To start a new counter, ask about SiOnline’s UTI PSA registration and request the ID and portal arrangements in writing.

Sources

• UTIITSL PAN services, fees and revised-form notice, retrieved 18 October 2026.

Facts checked on 18 October 2026. Check forms, fees and provider instructions again before you submit an application.