The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issued a gazette notification on Thursday that mandates private organisations using Aadhaar services to pay Rs 20 for each customer verification and 50 paise for authentication of the unique ID.
The gazette notification, the Aadhaar (Pricing of Aadhaar Authentication Services) Regulations 2019, however, exempts government entities and the Department of Posts from authentication transaction charges.
“Aadhaar authentication services shall be charged at the rate of Rs 20 (including taxes) for each e-KYC transaction and Rs 0.50 (including taxes) for each Yes and No authentication transaction from requesting entities,” a notification by the UIDAI said.
UIDAI mandates that the organisation pay for the service based on usage within 15 days of raising an invoice by the authority. Delays in payment will attract interest and could lead to discontinuation of authentication and e-KYC services.
On February 28, the government issued an ordinance to approve amendments to the Aadhar Act that would allow voluntary use of the Aadhaar number to authenticate both offline and online, besides using the number for authentication for KYC purposes. The Lok Sabha had cleared the bill in January but was stuck in the Rajya Sabha.
The ordinance also mandates that the entities that perform authentication only after they are compliant with privacy standards and security specified by the UIDAI
It also proposes deletion of section 57 of the Aadhaar Act relating to use of Aadhaar by private entities, which the Supreme Court had struck down in its September 2018 judgement
The notification, signed by UIDAI chief executive officer Ajay Bhushan Pandey, said that in case a requesting entity does not wish to pay authentication transaction charges, it shall discontinue the use of Aadhaar authentication services and intimate its decision to the UIDAI immediately and surrender its access to the authentication facilities.
Scheduled commercial banks engaged in providing Aadhaar enrolment and update facilities in accordance with its gazette notification issued in July 2017 shall be exempt from authentication transaction charges. However, such banks, which fall short of the Aadhaar enrolment and update targets, as communicated from time to time, will be charged in proportion to the shortfall in achieving the target.
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