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19 December 2017
 |
| subsidy on lpg(The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
To
avoid a repeat of Bharti Airtel-type fiasco, the Aadhaar-issuing authority
UIDAI on 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 Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
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 Rs 190 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 subsidy receiving.
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.
When contacted, UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey
told PTI 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. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
In case, the consumer does not wish to link
the DBT to the new account, the bank will have to provide the user with a
method to reverse the mapping.
In absence of an SMS or email (for those
consumer who do not have e-mail or mobile connection), the physical signature
on the paper consent form will have to taken by the bank prior to sending the
request on NPCI mapper.
All these records will have to be retained by
the banks for seven years.
"Banks and NPCI shall make available the
aforesaid records at the time of the audit as per the provisions of Aadhaar
Authentication Regulations 2016," the notification added. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
The notification detailed the reason for the
revamp of the process and went on to list the Bharti Airtel issue as well as
general instances of last bank account authenticated becoming the subsidy
receiving account.
"As a result, the subsidy from the
government under the various schemes are getting credited in the new/latest
bank account on Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) mapper without the knowledge and
informed consent of the beneficiary," the notification said.The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
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