UIDAI temporarily bans Airtel from conducting e-KYC, Airtel was the first to get RBI nod for payments bank
New Delhi, Dec 19 (IBNS):Bharti Airtel Limited, popularly known as Airtel, has reportedly offered to return Rs 190 crore of LPG subsidy of customers following the ban imposed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) regarding the alleged fraud entered into by the company, according to media reports on Tuesday.
Airtel has written to National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to return the subsidy along with interest to the consumers' original bank accounts that were linked to the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), reports said.
The Delhi-headquartered leading global telecommunications company was the first entity to get the nod from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to launch the Payments Bank.
A payments bank is like any other bank, but operating on a smaller scale without involving any credit risk.
The Economic Times defined it as a bank that can carry out most banking operations but can't advance loans or issue credit cards. It can accept demand deposits (up to Rs 1 lakh), offer remittance services, mobile payments/transfers/purchases and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third party fund transfers.
Airtel Payments Bank went live in December 2016.
Almost a year later, the bank is embroiled in alleged fraudulent transactions; according to media reports, over Rs. 167.7 crore LPG subsidy of 37.21 lakh consumers has been deposited in Airtel Payments Bank accounts till November-end, without taking the "informed consent" of users.
As the alleged fraud came to light, the UIDAI, on Saturday, temporarily barred Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank from conducting Aadhaar-based SIM verification of mobile customers using eKYC process, as well as e-KYC of payments bank clients, reports said.
According to media reports, by the end of November, Airtel had transferred Rs. 167.77 crore of subsidy of nearly 37.21 lakh customers to Airtel Payments Bank accounts. The consumers were enrolled with Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.
With the temporary ban on Airtel ruled by UIDAI, the company will not be able to conduct the electronic verification or link mobile SIMs of its customers with their 12-digit aadhaar ID. However, the company will be able to conduct the earlier mode of using forms and physical verification.
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