Despite receiving criticism from several quarters over making Aadhaar linking with bank accounts, phone numbers, insurance policies, PAN, PPF, NSC, LPG connections mandatory, the government may now tighten the noose around immovable property transactions to put a stop on black money flow in the real estate sector. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on several occasions hinted that demonetisation is just one step in curbing black money, and that many more steps would be taken to clean up the financial system in India.

Housing Minister Hardeep Puri on Tuesday said he had no doubt the linkage would happen. "Such a move would go a long way in sucking out black money from real estate and also help in crackdown on benami properties," he added, reported the Economic Times. The minister, however, he said he would not make any statement on that but additional steps could help in sucking black money from the property market.

Even as the government battles out in court the validity of making Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes, it is fast-tracking the process of seeding bank accounts with Aadhaar. Brushing aside all reservations on this account, the Reserve Bank of India clarified on October 21 that linking of bank accounts with Aadhaar is mandatory under the Prevention of Money Laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017. At last count, 750 million bank accounts had been linked to Aadhaar. The deadline is December 31.

On November 9, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) made it mandatory to link existing policies and new policies with Aadhaar. The latter is must for both life and general insurance policies like travel, home, heath and motor. While making the announcement, the regulator referred to Central government's gazette notification June 1, 2017, wherein it notified the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 and made Aadhaar and PAN/Form 60 mandatory for availing financial services including insurance and also for linking the existing policies with the same.