UIDAI makes stringent rules for Aadhar Card-Bank account linking

We are aware about the recent Airtel India Payment bank and Aadhar Card fiasco where Airtel was opening Airtel Payment banks for customers without taking consents from the customers using e-KYC of the Aadhaar Verification. Many benefits were routed to this Airtel Payment bank accounts and it was reported that around INR 47 Cr for 23 lakhs customers got deposited in these accounts without the consent or knowledge of the customers.

It is only after conformity was violated by the leading Telecom provider of the country that Unique Identification Authority of India also known as UIDAI has taken stringent measures to tighten the screws for Aadhar Card-Bank account linking. It has been categorically stated that explicit informed consent of the customers in mandatory according to the latest rules. The National Payment Corporation of India aka NPCI has rights to disable the override feature that according to the UIDAI is being misused by various banks while linking the bank accounts with the Aadhaar Card number without the concurrence of the customers. This resulted in the government subsidy getting credited to the new accounts even without the knowledge of the consumers.

The aberration here is explained in the manner that when an Aadhaar Holder goes to a Telecom Service provider with a request to link their sim card with the Aadhaar Card unique identification number, these Telecom providers were also opening a customer’s payment bank account and puts that new account number instead of the existing bank accounts on the NPCI’s Aadhaar Payment bridge. This override happens without the consent of the Aadhaar holder and thus the LPG subsidy goes to the Payment Account instead of the actual bank accounts. The problems were further added when the Aadhaar holders tried to verify the bank account in compliance to the Money Laundering rules (last date for which is now changed to 31^st March, 2018).

The chaos was majorly aggregated in rural areas where the knowledge of these digital compliance is still a tricky business as the beneficiaries were clueless on the receipt of the LPG subsidies and also were not able to withdraw this subsidy amount from their actual bank account since the amount got credited in the newly created payment bank accounts of the telecom service providers.

These strict rule changes will enable the consumers to avoid any further inconvenience and will ensure the Aadhar details collected to be used only for the purpose its being collected for and not for any parallel business models of the telecom providers.