Budget 2016-17: Aadhaar card to be accorded statutory status

New Delhi: Providing a legal foundation to Aadhar card, the government, Monday, announced that it will be accorded statutory status.

Presenting the Union Budget 2016-17, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “Additionally, as I will elaborate later, we will undertake significant reform including enactment of a law to ensure all government benefits are conferred to people who deserve it by giving a statutory backing to the Aadhar platform.”

The statutory status will pave the way for expanding Aadhar's use for a range of developmental purposes.

This implies that all benefits, subsidies or services funded from the consolidated fund of India will be through Aadhaar platform.

Till date over 98 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated. Per day average of 26 lakh biometric and over 1.5 lakh e-KYC transactions are made. Aadhaar numbers have been seeded in 11.19 crore DBTL accounts out of total 16.5 crore DBTL beneficiaries.

There is already a National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, pending in the Rajya Sabha.

With PTI inputs