Red Alert for people in India. Your hard-earned money may get stuck if you fail to get your Aadhaar card linked to your bank accounts and life insurance policies by the end of March this year, if relevant ministries and state governments have their way. The government has already made it mandatory for people to get their Aadhaar card linked to their bank accounts, life insurances, medical policies, kitchen gas numbers, among other things before March 31, 2018, to enjoy all the benefits offered by central and state governments. Those who fail to do the linking within the timeline risk being unable to enjoy the benefits.
The government, it is now learnt, could take a call on shutting accounts that are not Aadhaar-linked. Abhay Bhushan, CEO of UIDAI, in an interview with Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, said that it is the responsibility of respective central and state ministries to release circulars and take decisions on the same. He added that the decision of whether to close the bank accounts and life insurances of people those who fail to link Aadhaar also lies in the hands of these ministries. Notably, linking Aadhaar is not only related to financial services but to a person’s identity instead, Bhushan said.
Last year in December, the government had released a circular related to the linking of 139 services to Aadhaar. A case regarding the linking of Aadhaar to these services is currently being heard in the Supreme court.
Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, told the Hindi daily said that the case regarding Aadhaar linking is still in the apex court and refused to comment on it.
Meanwhile, last week Central Board of Trustees (CBT) of the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) lowered the interest rat on the PF deposits to 8.55 percent. As per a report by PTI, the EPFO has about five crore members and the decision to lower the interest rate of the provident fund was contrary to the expectations that it will retain it’s 8.65 percent rate.
