Your bank account and Aadhaar must be linked by December 31, 2017, Government says

Government's revenue department has issued a notification making it compulsory for your bank account to be linked with your Aadhaar number. 

The notification stated that the deadline to link the two is December 31, 2017, failing which, your bank account will be invalidated. 

The revenue department notification further said that it would be mandatory for a customer to divulge Aadhaar number for any transaction over Rs 50,000.

Aadhaar numbers are issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The government recently told the Supreme Court that over 115 crore Indians already have signed up for Aadhaar. 

Government has been trying to make Aadhaar compulsory for many social benefits and other services. Last month, the Supreme Court allowed the government to go ahead with linking of PAN card with Aadhaar. 

The government had notified that all income tax returns filed this year must have permanent account numbers (PAN) linked to their respective Aadhaar numbers. 

PAN numbers are compulsory to file income tax returns in India. 

The Supreme Court, while leaving the larger issue of Aadhaar on the Constitutional Bench, said that those who already have Aadhaar will have to link it with PAN while filing their income tax this year while those who are yet to sign up for Aadhaar are exempt from linking it with PAN. 

Banks in India too have been asking their customers to link their accounts with their Aadhaar numbers. 

Text messages and calls from bank officials to their account holders seeking the linkage have become a common place. 

Post June 1 if a person does not have an Aadhaar number at the time of opening of account, then he has to furnish proof of application of enrolment for Aadhaar and submit the Aadhaar number to the bank within six months of opening of the bank account, PTI reported.