UIDAI tightens norms for Aadhaar-bank account linking 

UIDAI tightens norms for Aadhaar-bank account linking 

Context

Following the  Airetel India- Aadhaar subsidy fiasco,the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday has tightened the norms for mapping Aadhaar number to a different bank account.

According to the latest rules, ‘explicitly informed consent’ from customers has been made compulsory

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will disable the override feature that UIDAI said was being misused by many banks while seeding Aadhaar to accounts without informed consent of residents.
• As a result subsidy from the government was being credited to new accounts without their knowledge
• The UIDAI further said that there have been complaints pertaining to customer verification

What was being done?

When an Aadhaar holder visits the telecom service provider for verifying his mobile number, as per Supreme Court’s Feb 6, 2017 order, the telecom firm is opening the customer’s payment bank account and puts that bank account on NPCI’s Aadhaar Payment Bridge, overriding the existing bank account. The mapping was done without the informed consent of the Aadhaar holder

Other problems

• Similar problem was being faced when Aadhaar holders verified their bank accounts to comply with Prevention of Money Laundering rules (the last date for which is now March 31, 2018)
• People, particularly in rural and remote areas, were being put to inconvenience as they were clueless about receipt of subsidy and also unable to withdraw the subsidy amount credited in payment bank accounts as payment banks are not having branches or cash out points in sufficient number in these areas
• The UIDAI has notified changes to its rules to avoid further inconvenience to Aadhaar holders and to ensure that the Aadhaar collected for a purpose is not used for any other purpose without informed consent of the Aadhaar holders