UIDAI allows Airtel to do Aadhaar-based checks till FY18 end

KOLKATA: The Unique Identification Authority of India has allowed Bharti Airtel to continue Aadhaar-based e-verification of telecom subscribers until the end of this financial year, but has not withdrawn the order suspending the facility for its payments bank.

“We can confirm that the UIDAI has permitted Bharti Airtel to continue Aadhaar-based e-KYC till March 31, 2018, subject to compliance to guidelines laid down by the authority,” a Bharti Airtel spokesman said in an email Thursday. The company said it “continues to engage with the authorities and has addressed all concerns that they have raised,” adding that “compliance to all guidelines is of paramount importance to us and we remain committed to this.” While Bharti Airtel did not comment on UIDAI’s order pertaining to its payments bank, a person aware of the matter said “status quo had been maintained.”

An emailed query to UIDAI didn’t elicit a response.


Besides Airtel, UIDAI had asked the Reserve Bank of India, Department of Telecommunications and audit and consultancy firm Pricewaterhouse-Coopers to conduct audits of Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank to see whether their systems, processes, applications, documentation and other aspects were compliant with licence conditions. The reports were slated to have come in by January 10. UIDAI expects to receive the reports by February 10, when it will take a final call on the licences and further action to be taken, if any, a government official said. In December, UIDAI suspended Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting Aadhaar-based verification of customers following complaints that the telco had used the facility to open payments bank accounts of its subscribers without their informed consent. Such accounts were also linked to receive subsidy from the government.