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The proverbial taxman, usually at the receiving end of jokes and memes, has taken a laudable step to help COVID-19 patients seeking treatment at hospitals. Last week Central Board of Direct Taxes issued a notification that if COVID patients need to pay hospitals by cash in excess of the Rs 2 lakh ceiling, they can do so provided the PAN or Aadhaar of the patient and the payee and the relationship between the patient and the payee are obtained by the hospital.

According to the announcement the measure is in force from April 1 and May 31. The ceiling of Rs 2 lakh in cash payments was put in place in 2017 to curb unaccounted for cash, or black money, in the country. To quell apprehensions that it might target hospitals for the cash, CBDT has also twitted that it has not asked these bodies to disclose the cash they receive from patients to the IT Department.

The step is certainly welcome since it relaxes norms for supporting the people at an hour of unprecedented crisis. The cap on cash transactions was creating an obstacle in the way of treatment of critical COVID patients as hospitals were refusing to accept cash above the capped amount.

However, the relaxation needs to be extended further. One, the time limit certainly has to be extended since the pandemic is not going to vanish by the end of this month. Two, the insistence on obtaining PAN and Aadhaar of the patient by the hospital authorities seems an additional burden since all details of the patients and the next of kin are recorded by the hospital and they can be reached out in any need. If the Income Tax department wants it, cash payments can be reconciled at the time of filing IT returns.