Transactions Using Aadhaar-enabled Payment System Increases During Lockdown 3.0

New Delhi: Digital technology has helped in a big way to enable provision of banking services at the grassroots level during the period lockdown, the Finance Ministry said on Monday. Also Read – Income Tax Return Deadline, Aadhaar-PAN card Linkage Extended to June 30 Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

This can be gauged from the popularity of the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) during this difficult period with average daily transactions doubling to 113 lakhs over the last 40 days. Also Read – Deadline Alert: Link PAN And Aadhaar Cards by March 31, Check Step-by-Step Procedure Here

According to Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the Finance Ministry, a total of 43 crore transactions of Rs 16,101 crore were made during the lockdown. This is double the rate prior to this period. Also Read – Customer Alert! Not Linking PAN With Aadhaar Could Attract Rs 10,000 Penalty From Income Tax

“Avg. daily AePS transactions doubled to 113 Lakh: Total 43 Cr. tran sactions of Rs. 16,101 Cr. made during the lockdown. DFS Congratulates the whole banking system & lauds BCs/CSPs for making it possible by providing services via biometric devices even in remote areas,” DFS said in tweet on Monday.

AePS is a bank-led model which allows basic interoperable banking transactions at point of sale (PoS or MicroATM) through the business correspondent of any bank by using Aadhaar authentication.

Using this system, a bank customer can use Aadhaar as identity to access respective Aadhaar-enabled bank account and perform basic banking transactions like cash withdrawal, intrabank or interbank fund transfer and balance enquiry.

From the customer point, the only things required to complete a transaction are the name of the customer’s bank, Aadhaar number and fingerprint captured during enrollment.