business

Updated: Oct 21, 2017 23:42 IST

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Saturday clarified that linking bank account to Aadhaar number is mandatory under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, dismissing media reports suggesting that such a linkage is not mandatory.

“The Reserve Bank clarifies that, in applicable cases, linkage of Aadhaar number to bank account is mandatory under the Prevention of Money-laundering (Maintenance of Records) Second Amendment Rules, 2017 published in the Official Gazette on June 1, 2017,” the RBI said.

It added that the anti-money laundering rules, which were amended in June 2017, have statutory force and banks have to implement them without awaiting further instructions.

The government had notified under the PML Act that every account should be linked to Aadhaar by December 31, failing which it’ll become inoperative.

The central bank’s clarification comes after an RTI reply to Moneylife.in said that it has not issued any directive that makes it mandatory to link bank accounts with Aadhaar number.

On October 14 a fresh petition was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to link bank accounts and mobile phones to the 12-digit unique identity number.

Joining the Aadhaar seeding debate, public sector banks’ officers’ union has demanded that the mandatory linking of biometric identity number should be put on hold until such time the Supreme Court comes out with a clear directive.