Clarifying the bank customers, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday said biometric identity number Aadhaar linkage with bank accounts is mandatory. The RBI also said that it never issued any such directions and it was the decision of the Central Government.
The move of the central bank came at time when it faced the heat from media reports, quoting a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application that suggested the apex bank has not issued any order for mandatory Aadhaar linkage with bank accounts.
“The Reserve Bank clarifies that, in applicable cases, linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 published in the Official Gazette on June 1, 2017,” the central bank said in a statement, adding that these rules have statutory force and, as such, banks have to implement them without awaiting further instructions.
The Government in June had made Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts as well as for any financial transaction of Rs 50,000 and above. The customers used to rush banks in order to link their accounts with Aadhaar following repeated calls and directions from their respective banks.
The apex bank further clarified that in applicable cases, linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017.
The Government made it mandatory to link bank accounts with the 12-digit biometric identification number. The deadline to do it is December 31, 2017. This linking of Aadhaar to bank accounts is a process over and above the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms already followed by the banks.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in August this year had also said that 524 million Aadhaar numbers had been linked to 736.2 million bank accounts in India. Banks accounts in India are already linked to the tax-related Permanent Account Number (PAN), which is mandatory.
The Finance Minister had further outlined a ‘one billion-one billion-one billion vision’ for the country. “That is one billion unique Aadhaar numbers linked to one billion bank accounts and one billion mobile phones. Once that is done, all of India can become part of the financial and digital mainstream,” Jaitley had said.
The RTI query further asked whether RBI had Supreme Court's permission to mandatorily link Aadhaar with bank accounts. In its reply RBI said it had not filed any such petition before the Supreme Court.