Income Certificate in Andaman and Nicobar Islands

What is an income certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands?

An income certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a revenue document certifying a family's annual income from all sources, signed by the Tehsildar of the area where the applicant lives. The Andaman and Nicobar Administration delivers it as an e-District service, and all three district administrations: South Andaman, North and Middle Andaman, and Nicobar, publish the same service description: apply "to the Concerned Tehsildar" through e-forms via CSC, e-corner or internet.

The certificate matters more in these islands than the raw population would suggest, because scholarships for students who go to the mainland for higher education, mess-bill assistance, fee concessions and several Andaman and Nicobar welfare schemes all test family income. The Administration's own scholarship and welfare notifications routinely require a current income certificate from the Tehsildar rather than a self-declaration.

Who can and who cannot apply?

Residents of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands can apply. The document trail the district administrations ask for. An Islander card or Aadhaar, a ration card and an affidavit; is the practical eligibility test: you must be able to show identity and a household ration card tied to an island address.

Salaried and self-employed applicants are both covered, but they prove income differently. A government employee supplies a pay certificate. A private-sector or self-employed applicant supplies income tax returns. Families with no formal income record rely on the affidavit, which the Tehsildar then verifies locally before certifying.

You cannot apply if you are not resident in the islands, because the Tehsildar has no jurisdiction to certify income for a household outside the tehsil. You also cannot substitute an income certificate from another state or Union Territory when an Andaman and Nicobar department asks for one; those departments require the certificate signed by the concerned island Tehsildar.

Which documents are required?

The list published identically on the South Andaman, North and Middle Andaman and Nicobar district websites runs to five items:

• ID proof, Islander card or Aadhaar
• Ration card
• Affidavit
• Pay certificate, for government employees
• Income tax returns, for private-sector applicants

The Islander card is worth flagging for readers unfamiliar with these islands: it is a local identity document issued to persons recognised as islanders, and it appears first in the Administration's own list. Aadhaar is accepted as the alternative.

The affidavit is the item applicants most often underestimate. It is a sworn statement of total family income from all sources, and the figure you swear to is the figure the Tehsildar's staff will test against your ration card, your employment papers and, where relevant, local enquiry. An affidavit that contradicts a pay certificate is the fastest way to a rejection.

How to apply for an income certificate in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

1. Open the e-District portal at edistrict.andamannicobar.gov.in, the state portal of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration, and register for a user ID if you do not already have one. The login page also offers Forgot User Id and Forgot Password recovery.
2. Prepare the five documents — Islander card or Aadhaar, ration card, affidavit, and either a pay certificate or income tax returns depending on where the family's income comes from.
3. Fill the income certificate e-form, entering the family members and the total annual family income you have sworn to in the affidavit.
4. Upload scanned copies of every document and submit the application to the concerned Tehsildar, that is, the tehsil covering your residence.
5. Pay the amount the portal's payment screen displays and save the acknowledgement with the application reference.
6. Attend verification if the tehsil office calls you, carrying the original affidavit, ration card and identity document.
7. Log in to the portal to track the application and download the certificate after the Tehsildar signs it.

If you do not have a reliable internet connection at home, the Administration's own description points you to a Common Service Centre or an e-corner, where an operator will fill and upload the e-form for you.

Which tehsil offices handle income certificates?

South Andaman district lists three tehsil offices for this service: Port Blair (PIN 744101), Ferrargunj and Little Andaman. North and Middle Andaman district lists Mayabunder, Diglipur and Rangat, with Rangat carrying PIN 744204. Nicobar district publishes the same service through its own district administration page. Applying to the wrong tehsil is a common and avoidable delay, especially for families who have moved between islands since their ration card was issued.

What does it cost and how long does it take?

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration does not publish a fee figure or a statutory processing time for the income certificate on any of the three district service pages, and this guide will not invent one. Check the fee shown on the e-District payment screen at the time you apply, and ask the tehsil office for its current turnaround when you submit.

Two cost cautions follow from that. First, a Common Service Centre operator may charge you a separate typing and uploading charge, which is a service charge to the operator and not the government fee. Second, no agent or middleman has any authority to promise a faster certificate for a payment. The application is either complete on the Administration's five-document list or it is not, and the Tehsildar's verification is what decides it.

How do you check the status of your application?

Log in with your registered user ID at edistrict.andamannicobar.gov.in and open your application from the dashboard. The portal is designed, developed and maintained by the Department of Information Technology, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, and its contact block names the Office of the Secretary (General Administration) at the Secretariat, Port Blair, with the Assistant Secretary (GA) reachable on 03192-259027 and 03192-259028. Use those numbers for portal-level problems, a login failure, a payment that did not register, an upload that will not attach.

For questions about the decision on your file rather than the portal, the concerned Tehsildar's office is the correct desk, since the Tehsildar and not the IT department is the issuing authority.

Why do applications get rejected?

Applications fail most often for reasons that are visible before submission. An affidavit whose income figure does not match the pay certificate or the income tax return will not survive verification. A ration card that lists a different set of family members from the ones declared on the form raises the same question. Submitting to a tehsil other than the one covering your residence sends the file back for re-routing. Uploading an expired or illegible identity document, or omitting the pay certificate when the earning member is a government employee, produces a query that stalls the file until you respond.

The practical fix is to treat the affidavit as the anchor document, then make sure every other paper agrees with it.

Where do you escalate a delayed certificate?

Start at the concerned Tehsildar's office with your application reference. If the file is stuck on the portal rather than at the tehsil, the Department of Information Technology helpdesk contacts published on the e-District portal are the right route. Beyond that, the district administration of your district; South Andaman, North and Middle Andaman, or Nicobar: publishes contact details and grievance information on its official nic.in website, and the Deputy Commissioner's office is the supervisory authority over the tehsils in each district.