Finance minister Arun Jaitley Friday said the government may bring a legislation to bring certainty to the use of Aadhaar for government welfare programmes and some other transactions, as the Supreme Court has allowed only limited use of the unique identity card. Separately, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the government might consider denying LPG subsidy to people beyond an income threshold to better target the benefit meant for the poor.
In a respite to the government on October 15, the Supreme Court had extended use the Aadhaar card on voluntary basis for welfare schemes like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana as also the employees’ provident fund and pension schemes. This is in addition to the two schemes — the public distribution system (foodgrain and kerosene) and LPG — where the use of Aadhaar on a voluntary basis for cash transfer to beneficiary bank accounts was allowed by the apex court in its August 11 interim order.
A five-judge Constitution bench of the court made it clear that the government should strictly follow all the earlier orders while referring the issue — whether privacy is a fundamental right — to a larger bench of nine or 11 judges. But, the bench rejected government’s request that the Aadhaar card should be also allowed for opening bank accounts.
Jaitley said there has to be universal stand on the use of Aadhaar for all government programmes. “If necessary, the draft legislation is already ready and at some point of time government can a decision (to implement that),” he said. Reassuring implementing agencies and state government, the minister said the use of Aadhaar is going to stay. The use of Aadhaar for property transactions and taxations matters could also lead to plugging of a large amount of tax evasion. “Both options are open for the executive either court or legislation (to give sanctity for wider Aadhaar use),” Jaitley said at the Delhi Economics Conclave.
Oil minister Pradhan said the government is now considering implementing direct benefit transfer in kerosene, which could result in annual savings of Rs 5,000-6,000 crore. Noting that 42.5 lakh people have voluntarily surrendered their LPG subsidy, Pradhan askedJaitley to consider denying LPG subsidy to the rich by linkingit to an income level up to which it would be available.