UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER TO BE MANDATORY

The Government is going to issue a Unique Identification Number (UID) which may be mandatory for opening a bank account, getting passport, driving licence, etc. UID scheme, which is expected to roll out the first number in 12-18 months, however, will not confer anyone any rights, including citizenship, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nandan Nilekani said. Nilekani, stressing that the UID at present is completely voluntary and the number will become “pervasive and ubiquitous” in future. “If you want to get your passport, driving licence, bank account or even want to pay service tax, the officials will seek your UID number. Hence sooner or later you will have to get your UID number,” Nilekani told the media persons. He said that in the coming years, all the above mentioned documents will start displaying the UID number, which proposes to weed out duplicate identities in the system. UID will also help to check black money and result in higher tax collections as it will become difficult to have duplicate accounts. Asked by when the banks would start having UID as a necessary feature to open accounts, he said, “that will be the choice of the individual agencies. We are providing infrastructure. It is up to the ministry or the relevant departments to decide those things. For example, RBI is the authority to decide when UID will be used for bank accounts. We are just giving this facility. So they will decide saying from this date onwards, new bank accounts must have UID.”