Government makes Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts, making transactions above Rs 50,000

The Narendra Modi government on Friday made Aadhaar mandatory for opening bank accounts, as well as for financial transactions of Rs 50,000 and above, reported PTI. Existing bank account holders have to furnish their Aadhaar number by December 31, 2017, failing which the account will cease to be operational.

In the 2017 Budget, the government had mandated linking the Aadhaar number with the Permanent Account Number.

Individuals, companies and partnership firms that want to make transactions of above Rs 50,000 must quote their Aadhaar with PAN or Form 60 with effect from June 1, the notification said. Small accounts that do not require officially valid “Know Your Customer” documents can be opened only at bank branches that have core banking solutions.

In case the individual does not have an Aadhaar number at the time of opening an account, one has to furnish proof of application for Aadhaar and submit the Aadhaar number to the bank within six months. However, for those who already have an account, they have time till December 31, 2017 to submit proof of Aadhaar.

“In case the client, eligible to be enrolled for Aadhaar and obtain a PAN... does not submit the Aadhaar number or the PAN at the time of commencement of an account based relationship with a reporting entity, the client shall submit the same within a period of 6 months from the date of the commencement of the account based relationship. Provided that the clients... already having an account based relationship with reporting entities prior to date of this notification, the client shall submit the Aadhaar number and PAN by December 31, 2017,” the notification said.

— PTI

The Centre’s notification on Friday comes exactly a week after the Supreme Court upheld the government’s scheme of linking Aadhaar with PAN cards. A bench of Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan ruled that those with both Aadhaar and PAN cards would need to link the two to file income tax returns. However, the bench said those who do not have Aadhaar will not have their PANs denotified.