UIDAI director general Vijay Madan says costing of services provided by it has taken more time than expected
A total of almost 15 mn authentications by 3.8 mn unique number holders have already been carried out at levels exceeding 92% of accuracy. Photo: HT
New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues Aadhaar identity numbers, has decided to not charge for its authentication services till March, it said in a notification dated 23 December.
The agency initially said it would make an announcement on this pricing by 31 December, but has now shifted this deadline to 31 March.
Authentication is the service by which UIDAI allows users such as banks and telcos check the basic information of their customers against its database. UIDAI has issued 510 million of the unique identity numbers as of 5 December. To be sure, the authentication strategy document of UIDAI says telcos and banks can save verification costs if they move to the online authentication services provided by UIDAI.
UIDAI director general Vijay Madan said costing of services provided by it had taken more time than expected.
Dinesh Tyagi, the chief executive officer of the government’s ambitious CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd, which aims to accelerate e-governance and also ensure the widespread availability of a range of government and private sector services online, said authentication services have some way to go to “stabilize”.
“UIDAI probably realized that this may not be an appropriate time to fix a price. Without getting demand and wider acceptability of the value of online authentication, it may not be a good idea to fix charges.”
A total of almost 15 million authentications by 3.8 million unique number holders have already been carried out at levels exceeding 92% of accuracy, a 5 December UIDAI note claimed.
The 23 December notification also mentions a draft discussion note on costing of UIDAI provided Aadhaar-enabled services that would help determine pricing. A senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity said UIDAI was considering setting up an independent advisory committee once it determines its pricing.