Businesses Need To Pay Up To ₹20 For Using Aadhaar Services

The gazette notification exempts government entities and the Department of Posts from authentication transaction charges.

Business organisations using Aadhaar services will now have to pay ₹20 for each customer verification and 50 paise for authentication of each transaction carried out by the entities, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said on Thursday.

“Aadhaar authentication services shall be charged at the rate of ₹20 (including taxes) for each e-KYC transaction and ₹0.50 (including taxes) for each Yes and No authentication transaction fromrequesting entities,” a notification by the UIDAI said.

The gazette notification, the Aadhaar (Pricing of Aadhaar Authentication Services) Regulations 2019, however, exempts government entities and the Department of Posts from authentication transaction charges.

“The entities have been incurring a cost of ₹150-200 per KYC sans Aadhaar. They have been demanding to use Aadhaar-based authentication and KYC services on account of these being convenient to them and their customers and also the fact that they will save huge amount which they currently incur in doing KYC through traditional means such as paper,physical verification, etc,” an official source told PTI.

The UIDAI source said with a nominal cost for each eKYC transaction entities would still be saving on Know Your Customer (KYC) cost while serving people with ease.

According to the notification, the entities shall be required to deposit the authentication transaction charges within 15 days of issuance of the concerned invoice based on the usage. The delay in payment beyond 15 days shall attract interest compounded at 1.5% per month and discontinuation of authentication and e-KYC services.