The Government is contemplating to make Aadhaar or Unique Identification (UID) card mandatory to avail rail concession, and an announcement is likely to be made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the first combined General and Railway Budget on February 1. The move will help the government in better targetting of benefits and check misuse of the facility, sources said.
The Railways provides concession on tickets to more than 50 categories of passengers which include senior citizens, students, research scholars, teacher, doctor, nurse, patients, sports people, unemployed youth, Arjun awardees among others. At present, Railways is running a pilot project for senior citizens who are entitled for rail concessions.
The concessional tickets cost the Railways about Rs 1,600 crore in 2015-16, with the bulk being accounted for senior citizens. As per the government data, over 100 crore Aadhaar cards have been issued so for covering bulk of India's population.
The government has decided to end the 92-year-old practice of presenting a separate Railway budget and merged it with the General Budget. Jaitley, according to sources, will contribute few pages of his Budget to programmes and schemes related to Indian Railways.
Although there will be a single budget, the Railways will continue to have autonomy as commercial undertaking and the existing financial arrangement will remain. The Railways is expected to get exemption from payment of dividend to the Union government, a move which will help strengthening its finances.
The organisation will also get budget support to meet part of its capital expenditure and will be allowed to raise extra budgetary resources. According to sources, Railways would continue to bear the expenditure on social and public service obligations.
It is also expected that Jaitley will present a separate statement of budget estimates and demand for grants for Railways in the General Budget. There will also be a single Appropriation bill, including the estimates of Railways, to the Parliament.
Meanwhile, the UIDAI on Sunday cautioned against unscrupulous entities charging anywhere between Rs 50-200 for a plastic Aadhaar card and emphasised that paper printed Aadhaar is "perfectly valid" and there is no concept such as smart or plastic card. Warning the public not to fall for such ploys, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said Aadhaar letter or its cutaway portion or downloaded version of Aadhaar on ordinary paper is valid for all uses.
The Aadhaar card or the downloaded Aadhaar card printed on ordinary paper is perfectly valid for all uses. If a person has a paper Aadhaar card, there is absolutely no need to get his/her Aadhaar card laminated or obtain a plastic Aadhaar card or so called SMART Aadhaar card by paying money. There is no concept such as smart or plastic Aadhaar card, Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO of UIDAI, said in a statement.
Govt mulls insurance norms for mobile wallet transactions
The Government has started talks with mobile wallet players and insurance companies to work out a mechanism to enable an insurance framework for electronic wallet transactions. Also in the offing is notification of forensics labs as registered 'examiners' for electronic evidence. Today, the IT Ministry is the only registered examiner for cybercrime related evidence. "The IT Ministry has co-ordinated 2-3 meetings with insurance firms and mobile wallet players. The idea is that money in electronic wallet needs to be insured," an official source said. Stating that the discussions were close to a "breakthrough", the source said once the talks reach a conclusion, the rules to enable an insurance framework for mobile wallet transactions will be notified. In another move, the IT Ministry will also notify forensic labs as 'examiner' for cybercrime related evidence. "At present, the IT Ministry is the only registered examiner for electronic evidence,"the source said.