Aadhaar linking deadline likely to be extended for all financial services, instruments

Aadhaar linking deadline likely to be extended for all financial services, instruments

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to extend the deadline for linking Aadhaar with other financial investments/instruments beyond December 31. This is clear from the amendment in the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules made via a notification yesterday. The amendment removes the deadline of December 31, 2017 and replaces it with ‘a date to be notified by the government’. This means that now the government can simply extend the date for linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts, mutual funds, insurance, PF accounts, post office schemes, and so on by issuing a notification. The amendment makes it clear that if the linking of Aadhaar is not done by the date to be notified by the government, the account or folio of the individual would be blocked.

Earlier, the government had set a deadline for providing Aadhaar to financial institutions as December 31, 2017, which meant that the individuals were required to link their Aadhaar to bank accounts, credit cards, insurance policies, equity and mutual fund investments, small savings schemes like Public Provident Fund, Kisan Vikas Patra, National Savings Certificate, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana and so on. You are also required to submit your Aadhaar details if you have taken a loan from a bank, housing finance company, or non-banking finance company.
Government has asked banks, financial institutions, and intermediaries to ensure that all their custom .. customer (KYC) compliant which, as per new rules, requires verification of their Aadhaar. An amendment has been made in the Prevention of Money Laundering Rules (Maintenance and Records), 2005 to this effect
As per the earlier rules, one had to mandatorily submit his/her Aadhaar and PAN details to be KYC-compliant. If this was not done before December 31, 2017, his/her account will become inoperable till the time the required details are submitted