UNIQUE IDENTITY NUMBER TO HELP BANKS SKIP KYC RULES
Mumbai
Business Standard
Banks in the medium future, may not need to engage in the “know-your-customer” (KYC) process, a check on customer antecedents, to open no-frills accounts. This could happen once a sizeable chunk of population gets a Unique Identification (UID) Number.
Once the UID number of a person was activated, banks could do away with KYC norms for small-value, or no-frills, accounts, said a top public sector bank official after attending a meeting organised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday on using UID for financial inclusion.
The Unique Identification Authority of India Chairman and former Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani made a presentation on how UID could help expedite the financial inclusion process.
While this will bring relief to banks, development of the UID database is going to be a long-drawn process in a country with one billion-plus population. Banks might not give up KYC norms any time soon, said another senior public sector bank executive.
“The UID authority made a presentation to RBI in which it said it will play a facilitative role in financial inclusion,” K Ramakrishnan, chief executive of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), told Business Standard.
“RBI also told banks to draw a roadmap for inclusion. This is something the UID authority is working on and will include preparation of standards for micro ATMs, etc,” he added.
The authority, set up under the Planning Commission, will provide an identity to every citizen to establish citizenship and address security concerns in this regard. The project is expected to be operational in the next 12-18 months.
MOBILE, ONLINE WATER BILL PAYMENT A REALITY SOON
With the BWSSB planning to accept mobile and online payments, water bills payment is set to become easier in the future. Chief Engineer (Cauvery), BWSSB, Vasudevan announced this on Monday, while presenting a paper on e-governance in BWSSB during the three-day `National Conference on Urban Water Management: Challenges and Options (NCUWM-09),’ which commenced here on Sunday.
Elaborating the proposed system to the media, BWSSB Chairperson P B Ramamurthy said that Indiranagar would become the first area to accept mobile payment. A pilot project will be launched here within a month and would later be extended to all areas under BWSSB.
On the cess the consumer will have to pay for the facility, the chairperson said that it would be a minimal amount, and not more than five rupees. Payments can also be made through Internet but this facility would be operational only after six months.
The chairperson declined to comment on the possibility of a hike in water tarrif owing to hike in power tarrif. Extra cost that the Board would incur would work out to be 10.2% more than what was being paid to the electricity board now. Out of an annual revenue of Rs 480 crore, we are paying nearly Rs 240 crore towards power charges, the highest paid by any water supply body in the country.
REDUCING EPF PENDING CASES
The Hindu Business Line
The Government today assured the Lok Sabha that pending cases for settlement of EPF claims will come down “substantially” once the computerisation programme being undertaken by Employees Provident Fund Organisation is completed. Till September this financial year, as many as 11.63 lakh cases were pending, but “the time taken in settlement of claims will come down substantially,” with the implementation of the computerised project, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Harish Rawat, said. According to the provisions of EPF scheme, claims received complete in all respect are settled within 30 days. In a written reply, the Minister said submission of incomplete forms by claimants and increased inflow of claims for final settlement was delaying settlement of claims. He also said that increasing trend in pending claims was due to large number of cases being processed on account of frequent changes of job, increasing membership and growing number of pending cases.
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