Indian businesses carry several official identifiers, and it's easy to mix them up. Here's what CIN, GSTIN and PAN each mean, how they relate, and how to verify them.
PAN — the tax identity
The Permanent Account Number is a 10-character income-tax ID (e.g. AAQCM3036R) issued to every taxpayer — individual or business. The 4th character tells you the holder type: C = company, F = firm/LLP, P = individual, H/A/T= HUF/association/trust. PAN is the common key that links a company's corporate and tax records.
CIN — the corporate-registry identity
The Corporate Identification Number is the 21-character MCA number assigned at incorporation (e.g. U62091TN2022PTC156234). Only companies registered with the MCA have one — proprietorships and ordinary partnerships don't. LLPs get an LLPIN instead. The CIN encodes listing status, industry, state, year and type. See how to check a company's MCA registration.
GSTIN — the GST identity
The Goods and Services Tax Identification Number is 15 characters (e.g. 33AAQCM3036R1ZW). It is built from:
- State code — first 2 digits (33 = Tamil Nadu).
- PAN — the next 10 characters (the business's PAN).
- Entity / check digits — the last 3.
Because the GSTIN embeds the PAN, a single GSTIN reveals the business's PAN — and a business can hold multiple GSTINs, one per state it operates in.
How they connect
A registered company has one CIN, one PAN, and one or more GSTINs(all sharing that PAN). Given any one of them, you can usually resolve the others: GSTIN → PAN (embedded) → CIN (via MCA), or CIN → PAN → all GSTINs. That's exactly what SupplierProof does — start from a CIN or a GSTIN and it stitches the full identity and compliance picture together.
Verifying each
Validating the formatonly proves the number is well-formed — not that it's real or active. To confirm it's genuine, you have to check it against the live registry: MCA for the CIN, the GST Network for the GSTIN, and the income-tax portal for PAN status. SupplierProof runs all three at once.
Verify any Indian supplier in 30 seconds
Turn a CIN or GSTIN into an AI-scored risk report — company status, directors, GST profile, charges, MSME status and red flags.
Run a free preview →See all supplier-verification guides.