Using Aadhaar as KYC norm can save telcos Rs 1,000 cr

Telecom companies in the country can save over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) every year provided they use Aadhaar authentication to verify identity and address of their prospective subscribers, a study has said.

"Adopting Aadhaar authentication can result in substantial savings of over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) annually for the telecom industry," a study 'Leveraging Aadhaar in Telecom Sector' conducted by the Unique Identification Development Authority of India said.

Aadhaar authentication is an online real-time service and only responds with a yes or no.

The Unique Identification of Authority of India is a body which is implementing Aadhhar project under which every resident of the country would be given a unique number.

The authority has been entrusted the task of enrolling 60

million residents. It has enrolled 20 million residents.

According to UIDAI's study, the discussions with industry experts indicate that paperless know your customer using Aadhaar can save substantially per subscriber by avoiding TERM fines and paper-based backend processes.

The TERM fines are imposed on operators who fail to verify subscribers identity and address as per prescriber norms.

According to the annual report of department of telecommunication for 2010–2011, the Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring cell imposed a penalty of Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) on telecom operators related to subscriber verification.

The estimate indicate that the telecom operators are issuing over 30 million mobile phone connections every month.