Relax Aadhaar linkage deadline, asks Assocham

New Delhi: Assocham on Sunday asked the government to ease the deadline for linking bank accounts, particularly those in the PSBs to Aadhaar, saying post-PNB scam, the PSU lenders are fire fighting to protect their core business and are hard pressed for human and other resources.

Assocham said that the economy has just about come out of the impact of vastly structural jerks of demonetisation and the GST and is not ready for another challenge by way of any bank account becoming inoperative after March 31.

“Notwithstanding judicial scrutiny and government’s  well-intentioned moves, the banks, particularly those in the PSUs, may find it hard and challenging to complete the task of linking Aadhaar with the accounts of all the customers by March 31,2018 thus necessitating relaxation of the deadline,” said Assocham.

“Following unearthing of alleged frauds in the PNB and a few other banks, the PSU lenders are anyway fire fighting to protect their core business and are hard pressed for human and other resources, to take up the job of Aadhaar linkage.  Should we not give them more time? Besides, the customers are also facing deadline pressure not only from the banks but also from payment gateways companies, which may also see a lot of disruption in the run-up to the deadline,” it said.