Aadhaar card mandatory to acquire or maintain mobile connection

If you want a new mobile connection then make sure that you have your Adhaar card ready for acquiring it. After income tax returns and pan cards, the Government is making Adhaar card mandatory for the purchase of new mobile connection.

On Friday, the department of telecom (DoT) has issued directives to re-verify both prepaid and postpaid subscribers through an Aadhaar-based eKYC process by February 6, 2018. 

This has been made mandatory after Supreme Court's order of February 6, 2017 that Aadhaar-based eKYC verification should be done for all mobile phone numbers in the country. Subsequently, a month later in February, DoT held deliberations with officials of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), regulator Trai, UIDAI and the industry on the directions given by the apex court.

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While issuing directives to the telecom operators, DoT said, “All licensees shall re-verify all existing mobile subscribers (prepaid and postpaid) through the Aadhaar-based e-KYC process.” The time frame provided for the exercise in one year — by February 6, 2018, it added.

According to the order, all the operators will have to inform their subscribers through print and television ads as well as through SMS about the Supreme Court order on the re-verification process.

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The order also recommended that existing customers should be given incentives like free voice or data to encourage them to use the eKYC process.

Stating that the paper-based KYC process is “not robust enough”, Trai said that there are possibilities for scrupulous elements acquiring working SIMs, using fake or forged documents.

The finance ministry hs made Aadhaar mandatory for filing income tax returns, besides directing Aadhaar to be linked to PAN card, failing which it could be cancelled.