Mobile phone companies have urged the government to scrap the “unreasonably high” charges of Rs 41 for Aadhaar-based electronic-know your customer (e-KYC) authentication, saying it’s limiting the use of the facility for user verification.
Mobile phone companies have urged the government to scrap the “unreasonably high” charges of Rs 41 for Aadhaar-based electronic-know your customer (e-KYC) authentication, saying it’s limiting the use of the facility for user verification.
“The only constraint in the adoption of this process presently is the unreasonably high authentication charges prescribed by UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India),” said director-general of Cellular Operators Association of India, SP Kochhar.
“The cost of each SIM activation increases by Rs 41, which is exorbitantly high as compared to the cost of other activation processes,” he said.
COAI Represents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
Earlier this week, the telecommunications department (DoT) allowed telecom operators to use Aadhaar number or virtual id for e-KYC services for issuing new mobile connections to consumers, including outstation customers, and for bulk activations.
The e-KYC process shall be implemented for all licensed service areas, including Jammu & Kashmir, Northeast, and Assam, DoT had said in a notification. Existing provisions for identifying customers will also continue.
“We would request the government that telecom service providers should not be a burdened with a cost for adopting a digitally safe and secure process that is in the interest of ensuring national security,” Kochhar said.
COAI pointed out that the postal department and banks are exempted from e-KYC authentication charges, while telecom carriers are burdened with these charges despite the industry being the largest user of Aadhaar database.
