Last week, Supreme Court gave its verdict on the Aadhaar push by Govt., and indirectly, they have approved the scheme to link all PAN Cards with Aadhaar, and mandating Aadhaar for filing Income Tax returns.
Now, as the decks are cleared, legal routes have been cemented, Govt. has triggered the final lap of Aadhaar race.
As per new Govt. notification, every bank account needs to be mandatorily linked with Aadhaar card. And this not just a suggestion: In case you don’t do it, then your bank account would be blocked.
The Age Of Aadhaar: Every Bank Account Linked With Aadhaar
After the PAN Card-Aadhaar bondage, this is the most rigorous push for Aadhaar ever.
The present amendments made under Prevention of Money Laundering Rules make it mandatory for every bank account holder in India to link their respective bank accounts with their Aadhaar Cards, latest by December 31, 2017.
After December 31st, all Aadhaar-less bank accounts will be blocked, and access to banking operations would be ceased. This clears all confusion regarding the issue.
Out of roughly 70 crore active bank accounts in India, only 65% are linked with Aadhaar right now. After this notification, it is expected that 100% would convert into Aadhaar linked bank account.
Dismissing speculations that the money in the blocked bank account would be unsafe, an official from Finance Ministry said, “The money will be safe but the accounts will not be operational. Once the account holder shows the required documents they will be unfrozen,”
Note here, that under Prevention of Money Laundering Rules, Govt. had earlier made it compulsory to link PAN card with Aadhaar card – even if you don’t file Income Tax returns. In case any PAN Card is not linked with Aadhaar, that PAN Card will also be blocked.
Hence, effective January, 2018, we can safely say that the Age of Aadhaar will officially begin: Every PAN Card, Bank Account and Aadhaar of every Indian citizen is expected to be linked now.
Every Transaction Above Rs 50,000 To Be Aadhaar Based
The Govt. also made it mandatory to mention Aadhaar card, for every transaction above Rs 50,000.
This is a major anti-black money drive, which will make every such transaction transparent, and open to investigation, besides making every such transaction traceable.
The e-KYC directive for linking bank accounts with Aadhaar has also been made for small amount accounts such as Jan Dhan and Basic Savings accounts, where there was no need to provide Aadhaar till now.
The Govt. notification said, “The small account shall be monitored and when there is suspicion of money laundering or financing of terrorism or other high risk scenarios, the identity of client shall be established through the production of officially valid documents,”
Do you think Aadhaar-PAN-Bank account trinity would help to stop black money? Do let us know by commenting right here!