press trust of india
New Delhi, Dec 19: To avoid a repeat of Bharti Airtel-type fiasco, the Aadhaar-issuing authority UIDAI Tuesday directed banks to seek an explicit consent of the beneficiary before changing the account to which the government subsidy is being remitted.
Also, the banks have been asked to intimate the beneficiary about the change within 24-hours through SMS and e-mail as well as provide an option to the person to reverse the change, according to a Gazette notification issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
The notification follows complaints of government grants, particularly LPG subsidy, being credited into the last account authenticated using national biometric ID, Aadhaar.
The situation was worse in case of Bharti Airtel, which allegedly opened unsolicited payment bank accounts of its unsuspecting mobile customers who had used Aadhaar to verify their SIMs.
The government has made it mandatory for all bank accounts as well as SIMs to be verified by providing the 12-digit biometric identification number Aadhaar.
While subsidies totaling over Rs190 crore had flown into the ‘unsolicited’ accounts opened by Airtel Payments Bank, the accounts had also got changed for beneficiaries who had multiple bank accounts as the last account authenticated became the one meant for receiving subsidy.
The UIDAI, in the notification, said the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) shall allow override requests or change of subsidy-receiving account, only if it is accompanied by the name of the beneficiary’s current bank and a confirmation that explicit consent has been obtained for the switchover.
Till this provision is implemented, “NPCI shall disable the override feature” in the Aadhaar-based bank account mapping process, the notification said.
UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that “a very secure process has been evolved to put an effective stop to switching of bank accounts without” informing and seeking consent of consumers.
As per the new process, banks will send request for mapping of a new account or overriding an existing bank account to NPCI only after taking explicit and informed consent of their customers, it said.
Further, the banks would also have to inform each account holder through SMS and email about the overriding request within 24 hours, providing name of the current bank on the mapper and the last four digits of the account number of the new bank along with the bank name.
Airtel deposits Rs2.5cr penalty
New Delhi: Airtel has deposited an interim penalty of Rs2.5 crore with the Aadhaar-issuing body UIDAI after an action against the telecom operator for allegedly opening payments bank accounts of its mobile subscribers without their ‘informed consent’, according to sources. The company is learnt to have given the assurance that it will return Rs190 crore that had flown into the ‘unsolicited’ payments bank accounts of 31 lakh mobile subscribers over the next 24 hours and will also inform the customers that their subsidy-linked account is being switched back to the originally-chosen account. Airtel has deposited an interim penalty of Rs2.5 crore “unconditionally” to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), a person familiar with the development said.
