Linking bank A/c with Aadhar No is mandatory; RBI

DAINIK NATION BUREAU

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday has outrightly rejected the media reports that it was not necessary to link bank accounts with Aadhaar numbers. They said in a statement that the requirement remained in force under anti-money laundering rules. Anti money laundering rules announced in june-2017 have statutory force and banks have to implement them without awaiting further instructions.

“The RBI clarifies that linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017.” .

The Aadhaar programme, which is the world’s largest biometric identity card programme, has triggered some claims that it is an infringement of privacy of citizens.

The Supreme Court in August this year had said that privacy is a fundamental right and the verdict was expected to complicate efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to make linking of the ID card numbers with bank accounts, telephone numbers.

THOMSON REUTERS-2017