Aadhaar made compulsory for post office deposits, PPF, KVP; last date December 31

After bank deposits, mobile and various welfare schemes, the 12-digit Aadhaar number has been made necessary for all post office deposits, PPF, the National Savings Certificate scheme and Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP). The recent step by the government is an extension to push the importance of Aadhaar. Deadline for people to provide the 12-digit unique identification number is December 31, 2017.

Ministry of Finance in four separate Gazette notifications made the announcement regarding Aadhaar. Notification dated September 29 said “if Aadhaar number has not been assigned, the depositor shall present proof of application of enrolment for the same.”

Also, it was made clear that “existing depositors who have not submitted Aadhaar number at the time of application for such deposit are required to submit their Aadhaar number to the post office savings bank or deposit office concerned, on or before the deadline i.e December 31, 2017.”

The government is constantly being pushing for Aadhaar and has made it compulsory for bank deposits, obtaining mobile phone and several government schemes. In fact, an extended on the deadline for obtaining Aadhaar for availing government schemes and subsidies has been shifted from September 30 to December 31.

“As a result of the review of welfare schemes covered and to provide the benefits of such schemes to all eligible beneficiaries, an extension has been decided for the stipulated date in all such notifications up to December 31, 2017,” an order dated September 26 said.

The extension remains the same for Employees under Employees’ Pension Scheme of 1995 and students willing to avail scholarships besides enrolling for national apprenticeship, crop insurance schemes, skill development schemes and Atal Pension Yojana.

“It is hereby made clear that this extension shall only apply to those beneficiaries who have not yet enrolled for Aadhaar or who are not assigned Aadhaar number. Such beneficiaries are required to enroll for Aadhaar by December 31, 2017and provide their Aadhaar number or enrolment ID,” it had stated.

It must be noted that after government made it mandatory to link 12-digit Aadhaar issued by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), many telecom operators including Idea, Airtel and Vodafone have been informing its customers for linking their Aadhaar with phone number. Even banks have been doing the same and asking customers to link their Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts to avoid making them in operational.