NEW DELHI: Re-verification of existing mobile subscribers through Aadhaar-based eKYC will set back the telecom sector by Rs 2,500 crore, lobby group the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in a letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
“The re-verification activity entails a huge cost which is borne by the telecom service providers. In this case, the activity needs to be carried out for about 1,000 million subscribers, which is a huge number and involves humongous resources,” said Rajan Mathews, director-general of COAI, in the letter.
The letter came in response to a meeting by the DoT on the issue of re-verification of existing subscribers through Aadhaar-based eKYC.
In January, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had suggested verification of existing mobile subscribers through Aadhaar based e-KYC.
The Supreme Court, too, has asked the Centre to apprise it about the steps that can be taken to scrutinise the existing and future mobile users.
In its letter, COAI suggested that once the eKYC-based activation facility reaches acceptable levels, new customer activation should only be allowed through e-KYC except in case of foreign nationals and company-owned connections. This, COAI said, would have to be mandatory precursor, as otherwise new non-eKYC subscribers would continue to be added into the system.
According to COAI, the re-verification exercise will be ‘robust’ as the verification of demographic details would happen through the government database. The association has suggested a series of measures to carry out the exercise in a “more effective manner”.