The government on Wednesday extended to March 31, 2018 the deadline for linking Aadhaar to bank accounts and various financial services. The move comes as a major relief for banks and other entities in the financial sector as crores of customers are yet to link their accounts to Aadhaar and might have missed the earlier deadline of December 31, 2017.

In a statement, the government said that after considering various representations and inputs from banks, it has been decided to notify March 31, 2018 or six months from the date of commencement of account-based relationship by the client, whichever is later, as the date of submission of the Aadhaar number and permanent account number (PAN) or Form 60 by the clients to the reporting entity. While Aadhaar is issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), PAN is allotted by the income tax department. Form 60 is a declaration filed by an individual who does not have a PAN and enters into certain financial transactions.

Senior banking sources said over 33% of bank account holders are yet to link their accounts to Aadhaar.

A State Bank of India source said that around 65-70% of the bank's accounts have been linked to Aadhaar. For private banks, the number was close to 60%.

If these customers were not able to meet the deadline, several crore bank accounts would have been rendered inoperative.

Without the relaxation in the deadline, mutual fund investors who have not linked accounts to Aadhaar would have found it difficult to continue with their systemic investment plans or make fresh investments.

Many customers who had to have corrections made in their Aadhaar cards were finding it difficult to do so because of the lack of Aadhaar enrollment centres. #casansaar (Source - PTI, Times of India)