The Union government has put off the December 31 deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts and Permanent Account Numbers (PAN), through amendments to relevant rules under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002 notified on Tuesday.
The PMLA rules pertaining to maintenance of records have been modified to replace the requirement of submitting “the Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number by December 31, 2017” with “submit the Aadhaar number, and Permanent Account Number or Form No. 60, by such date as may be notified by the Central government.”
The amendments, made in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, hence puts off the linking of Aadhaar indefinitely till the government announces a new date.
Last week, the government submitted before the Supreme Court that it intends to issue a notification, extending the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with services from December 31 to March 31, 2018. It, however, clarified that the deadline for linking Aadhaar to mobile numbers is February 6, 2018 and it will not be extended.
The notification said, “in case the client already having an account based relationship with reporting entities prior to the date of publication of this notification in the official Gazette fails to submit the Aadhaar number and Permanent Account Number by such date as may be notified by the Central Government, the said account shall cease to be operational till the time the Aadhaar Number and Permanent Account Number is submitted by the client.”