Airtel allowed to use e-KYC, but payments bank still barred

Bharti Airtel has been granted a breather as the Unique Identification Authority of India has allowed it to use Aadhaar for re-verification of its mobile customers till 10 January with stiff riders after it returned Rs138 crore in LPG subsidies that had flowed into unsolicited payment bank accounts.

The UIDAI has "conditionally" allowed Airtel to conduct Aadhaar-based e-KYC (You're your Customer) verification for mobile subscribers till 10 January 2018. However, it has maintained e-KYC licence suspension order on Airtel Payments Bank.

"UIDAI has not allowed Airtel Payments Bank to use e-KYC licence key and it shall remain deactivated until further notice," UIDAI sources were reported as saying.

As per the order, Airtel must restrict its e-KYC and authentication service to issuance or re-verification of SIM cards. The telecom major - India largest with 282 million mobile subscribers - would not be allowed to leverage this for obtaining consent of the Aadhaar holder for opening bank accounts, wallet, Direct to Home (DTH) or any other goods or services.

Airtel will have to inform its customers over the next 24 hours that the direct benefit transfers or gas subsidies received in their Airtel payment bank accounts have been duly reversed to original bank accounts.

An Airtel spokesperson said that "...we would like to confirm that the UIDAI has allowed Bharti Airtel to resume Aadhaar based e-KYC services. We continue to engage with the authorities".

The UIDAI has asked both Reserve Bank of India and the Department of Telecommunications department to conduct an audit of systems, processes, applications, documentations followed by Bharti Airtel "to ensure that the company is in compliance with their license conditions".

The nodal body for Aadhaar will take a view on the entire issue after it receives a report from both the RBI and the DoT by 10 January.

Airtel has said 13.80 lakh Airtel payment bank account holders are already using the DBT subsidy amount and therefore their accounts have not been reversed on the mapper.

But even in those cases, the company will have to provide an option to such customers (via SMS within three days) to switch to their previous DBT-linked bank accounts.

While taking the decision, the UIDAI has kept in mind the convenience of customers and also the looming 31 March deadline given by the Supreme Court for mobile SIM re-verification with Aadhaar.

Both Airtel and Airtel Payments bank came under fire after the Sunil Mittal-led firm allegedly opened accounts of its mobile phone subscribers without seeking their "informed consent", and LPG subsidy worth crores was deposited into these accounts.

The UIDAI, in a strong move late last week, temporarily barred the company from conducting Aadhaar-based SIM verification of mobile customers using eKYC process, and e-KYC of payments bank clients (See: Airtel banned from e-KYC over opening unauthorised bank accounts).

Moreover, to avoid a repeat of Bharti Airtel-type fiasco, the UIDAI earlier this week directed banks to seek an explicit consent of the beneficiary before changing the account to which the government subsidy is being remitted.