While the deadline for verifying bank accounts and income tax Permanent Account Number (PAN) by providing Aadhaar is December 31, for SIM cards it is February 6.
Refuting social media messages, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said that as on date there is no stay from the Supreme Court on Aadhaar and its linking to various services.
"That Aadhaar Act being in force, all notifications for requiring Aadhaar for various welfare programmes, verifying bank account, PAN card and SIM card with Aadhaar stand valid and lawful," it said in a statement.
"Today's legal position is that there is no stay as on December 7, 2017 from the Supreme Court on Aadhaar and its linking to various services," it added.
The government has made it mandatory for verifying bank account and PAN to weed out black money and bring unaccounted wealth to book. The same for SIM has been mandated to establish identify of mobile phone users.
"The mandatory requirements of Aadhaar for PAN, bank accounts, welfare programs, and SIM cards have been challenged in the Supreme Court and no stay has been granted. Therefore, it is clear that the video is outdated because it does not reflect the latest legal position as on today (December 7, 2017)," the statement said.
UIDAI said the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 was passed by the Parliament on March 16, 2016 and notified in the Gazette of India on March 26, 2016.
"Therefore, subsequent notifications issued under section/s of Aadhaar Act for requiring Aadhaar as primary identifier by various ministries and departments of Government of India and States/UTs Governments for various services, benefits and subsidies hold the field today," it said.
UIDAI asked people not to get misled by an outdated video doing rounds in the social media and Whatsapp and said "people should instead verify their banks accounts, investment accounts, SIM cards, etc as per the current laws and deadlines as early as possible to avoid any inconvenience."
"UIDAI has clarified on a video circulated purportedly out of context of a lady lawyer on WhatsApp, Twitter and Social Media and said that the video refers to an order passed by the Supreme Court on August 11, 2015 when the court had restricted use of Aadhaar to only few programs," the statement said.
The video, it said, does not reflect "true legal position" as it stands today, because after the said Supreme Court order of 2015, Aadhaar Act was passed by Parliament in 2016.
Subsequent to the Act, notifications have been issued making Aadhaar mandatory for availing various welfare benefits such as public distribution services (PDS), cooking gas LPG, MNREGS, scholarships and pensions.
The Income Tax Act was amended in March 2017 to make Aadhaar mandatory for PAN cards. On June 1, 2017, PML Rules have been amended to make Aadhaar mandatory for linking all bank accounts, insurance, pension, mutual funds and DMAT accounts.
"Supreme Court too in Lokniti Foundation case through an order passed in February 2017 has approved verification of all SIM cards with Aadhaar," UIDAI said.
The Apex Court has upheld the linkage of Aadhaar with PAN in the case of Binoy Viswam vs Union of India which mandates Aadhaar for income tax returns and PAN.
"The interest rate is calculated on minimum balance in the account from the end of 5th day of the month till the end of the month," said SBI, the country's largest bank.
Till October 3, 2017, PPF customers had been getting a 'contracted PPF rate of interest', the bank said.
In case PPF account holders live outside India, his/her account will be deemed closed with effect from October 3, 2017.
If an NRI wants to transfer his PPF account balance to his account, he can get it transferred into his/her Non Resident Ordinary (NRO) saving bank account after submitting either a copy of his/her passbook or his/her account statement to SBI.
The victim, Manoj Munda has claimed that Rs 10,000 each was withdrawn from his account for 13 times in the past one month while it was only on October 17 that he came to know about such fraudulent transaction.
It has been ascertained that Manoj’s bank account has been linked with Aadhaar number of another person, who has reportedly withdrawn the money from the former’s account.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Manoj’s savings account has been linked with the Aadhaar number of one Satyabati Bag.
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“When I went to bank and withdrew Rs 60,000 and later, on inquiring balance, I learnt that already Rs 1.30 lakh was withdrawn from my account,” said Manoj.
The incident is certainly a matter of concern for other people as it has now become mandatory to link bank and PAN with Aadhaar by March 31, 2018. Earlier, the deadline for linking Aadhaar was December 31, 2017.
Bank authorities also admitted the goof-up and informed that the matter has been brought to the notice of police authorities for necessary action.
Inspector-in-charge of Koksara police station, Pradip Kumar Dharua informed that basing on the complaint filed by Manoj, the matter has been reported to cyber crime police station for necessary investigation.
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“It appears that the victim’s bank account has been wrongly linked to another person's Aadhaar number. As the matter involves lot of investigation, we have referred the case to cyber crime police,” said Dharua.
As per allegations, cash ranging from Rs 5,000 to 25, 0000 were deposited and subsequently withdrawn from their accounts. However, when trying to inquire about the transactions, the bank officials have gone into hiding, alleged depositors.
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In a bid to ensure that they do not land into any trouble in future due to these transactions, the depositors have lodged an written complaint with Angul Police.
“We had opened a zero-balance account. We had no money in the account. We found out that someone has deposited Rs 5,000 four times respectively and has also withdrawn it. When we went to update our passbooks, the officials said no print is available today,” said a depositor.
Comments could not be obtained from bank officials and police in this matter.
While the BJP said that BJD bought time to hide the truth, the Congress said the matter should be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“Now the people of Odisha will believe that in which way the ruling party is involved in corruption. The then DGP Prakash Mishra had also established such type of corruptions in the party. Hence we demand that the issue raised by former Union minister Braja Kishore Tripathy must be investigated by the CBI,” former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Jayadev Jena said.
The saffron party also echoed the voice of State Congress.
“By not clarifying details of the particular bank account which was presented by Tripathy, the ruling party has only invited criticism for itself. It should be probed impartially,” BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said.
Yesterday in a press conference jointly addressed by Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Industries, School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra and party spokesperson Sameer Dash, the leaders had claimed that the money was transferred to eight leader’s account for election expenditure.
“Yes, money was transferred to eight BJD leader’s accounts through a cheque and not to Sabyasachi Panda’s account. The funds were transferred before the election for poll expenditure purpose,” Health Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said.
On April 10 last year, Rs 45 lakh was transferred through a cheque (No 441630) in Real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) mode from BJD’s account number 10091755246 in the State Bank of India’s Bhubaneswar Rajpath branch, they said.
However Tripathy, a former parliamentarian from Puri, had claimed the ruling party had credited Rs 45 lakh to bank account of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda.
“The amount has been transferred through bank cheque (no 44 1630) from BJD A/C no 10091755246 to Sabyasachi Panda’s ICICI bank A/C no 203601501728,” Tripathy said.
Earlier in the day, Panda's lawyer Deepak Patnaik had said his client would consider filing a defamation case against Tripathy if the latter did not apologise for his allegation that Panda had received Rs 45 lakh from the BJD in 2014.
“If Tripathy does not apologise unconditionally, then he (Sabyasachi) will file a defamation case against him,” the lawyer said quoting Panda.“Sabyasachi wants a CBI probe into the whole matter,” he added.
A softened Tripathy today said he is associated with Panda’s family since long and the recent matter should not hurt the rebel leader.
“I have only urged the PMO to investigate that from BJD’s bank account a sum of Rs 45 lakh has been transferred to one Sabyasachi Panda. I have not pointed to anybody at a personal level. If a probe is ordered, the names of everyone involved in the transaction will come to the fore. But I have not targeted him (Sabyasachi). If he is hurt in the matter, then I am sorry about this. I have no intention to hurt anybody,” the former parliamentarian said.
He added; “I have a family relationship with Panda's family and knew his father very well. I have gone to his house many times. Though I have no direct link with Panda, I personally like him. As a friend of their family, I am sorry for this.”
The deadline was earlier December 31 for linking the 12-digit unique identification number with both Permanent Account Number (PAN) and bank accounts. However, the government extended the deadline last week for linking it with PAN till March 31.
A notification to link it with bank accounts was later issued on Tuesday by the Department of Revenue under the Finance Ministry. The notification, however, did not mention the new deadline, leaving it open-ended.
The government later issued a press release which contained the deadline of March 31.
According to the December 12 notification, the words "submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, 2017" have been substituted by "submit the Aadhaar number, PAN or Form No 60 by such date as may be notified by the Central government".
The release said under the provisions of Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017, it was provided that if a client already having a bank account or any other account-based relationship with reporting entities prior to date of this notification fails to submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, "the said account shall cease to be operational till the time the Aadhaar number and PAN is submitted by the client".
In case of a person opening a new account, the deadline for submitting Aadhaar number and PAN was "six months from the date of the commencement of the account based relationship".
"After considering various representations received in this regard and inputs received from banks, it has been decided to notify March 31, 2018 or six months from the date of commencement of account based relationship by the client, whichever is later, as the date of submission of the Aadhaar number, and Permanent Account Number or Form 60 by the clients to the reporting entity," the statement said.
The Ordinance was necessitated as a bill, passed by the Lok Sabha on January 4 but pending in the Rajya Sabha, would have lapsed with the dissolution of the current Lok Sabha. The Ordinance will now give the effect to the changes in the Aadhaar Act such as giving a child an option to exit from the biometric ID programme on attaining 18 years of age.
Briefing reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Cabinet has approved the promulgation of an Ordinance to give effect to the Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill.
The amendment provides for stiff penalties for violation of norms set for the use of Aadhaar and violation of privacy. It bans storing of core biometric information as well as Aadhaar number by service providers in cases of individuals who have voluntarily offered the national ID as a means of authentication.
"Aadhaar can be used as KYC on a voluntary basis under the Telegraph Act and PMLA rules. Any entity using Aadhaar will have to adhere to privacy guidelines," Prasad said.
The amended law makes it clear that anyone not offering Aadhaar cannot be denied any service, be it opening of a bank account or obtaining a mobile phone SIM card.
The amendments will "provide for 12-digit Aadhaar number and its alternate numbers to be generated" in a manner so as to conceal the actual Aadhaar number.
The proposed changes also seeks to lay down the procedure for offline verification of an Aadhaar number holder, and confers enhanced regulator-like power on the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to give directions as it may consider necessary to any entity in the Aadhaar ecosystem.
It proposes that every requesting entity to whom an authentication request is made will inform the Aadhaar number holder of alternate and viable means of identification and shall not deny any service to them for refusing to, or being unable to undergo authentication.
The changes that were proposed included a civil penalty of up to Rs 1 crore on entities that violate the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, with an additional fine of up to Rs 10 lakh per day in case of continuous non-compliance. Unauthorised use of identity information by a requesting entity or offline verification seeking entity would be punishable with imprisonment of up to three years with a fine that may extend to Rs 10,000 or in case of a company with a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh.
Punishment for unauthorised access to the Central Identities Data Repository as well as data tampering is proposed to be extended to 10 years each from the current three years. It also seeks to omit Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act relating to the use of Aadhaar by private entities.
As per reports, the victim had allegedly received an SMS with a link regarding winning the prize money in popular TV show "Kaun Banega Crorepati"(KBC) a year ago. The matter came to light after the victim lodged an FIR on Tuesday at the Cyber Police Station in the district.
Sources said that the victim, after getting the SMS a year back, had called up the number from which he received the message. The fraudster reportedly asked the victim to deposit some amount towards processing fees to claim the total prize money.
Later, the victim deposited lakhs of rupees in different phases in several bank accounts of the accused. Out of sheer desperation, the victim even sold his land and withdrew money from his Provident Fund account to arrange cash. He continued to pay the amount for a year in the hope of getting Rs 4 crore prize money.
After realising it to be some fraud, the victim filed a complaint at the Cyber Police Station yesterday.
After the complaint was lodged, police seized the deposit slips and launched an investigation. In-charge of Cyber Police Station, Anita Pradhan, said that the accused will be arrested soon.
"The Hirakud resident got a link initially asking him to fill his personal details. Later, he was asked to deposit money in multiple phases towards processing and other fees. This continued for a year and finally after ending in coughing up Rs 40 lakh he lodged a complaint," Pradhan said.
"The Reserve Bank of India, after reviewing the bank's liquidity position and its ability to pay its depositors has decided to further enhance the limit for withdrawal to Rs. 40,000, inclusive of Rs. 25,000 allowed earlier," the central bank said in a statement.
Now, more than 77 per cent of the bank depositors will be able to withdraw their entire account balance, RBI's statement said.
PMC Bank is facing a crisis after an alleged Rs 4,500 crore scam came to light last month. The RBI had capped withdrawals from the bank at Rs 1,000 and later increased it to Rs 25,000 following protests by depositors.
The bank had allegedly lent over 70 per cent of its Rs 9,000 crore in loans to near-bankrupt realty player HDIL.