Centre May Make Aadhaar Compulsory For Filings Under Companies Act
This will help ascertain authenticity of individuals and ensure bogus identities are not used.
The government plans to make India’s biometric data-based unique identification number, Aadhaar, compulsory for regulatory filings made by key managerial personnel and directors under the Companies Act so as to weed out bogus entities.
There are more than nine lakh active companies in the country and the proposal comes at a time when authorities have stepped up efforts to curb money-laundering activities through shell firms.
Registered companies have to submit filings as mandated under the Companies Act in electronic format through the MCA21 portal. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is "actively considering" integration of Aadhaar for availing various MCA21 related services.
In a notice, the ministry has requested individual stakeholders to obtain Aadhaar at the earliest for "integrating their details with MCA21". Besides, it has emphasised that information in Aadhaar be in harmony with PAN (Permanent Account Number).
"When implemented, all MCA21 services shall be available based on Aadhaar-based authentication only," the notice said.
A government official said seeding Aadhaar with the filings would help ascertain the authenticity of individuals and ensure that bogus identities are not used.
Individual stakeholders, including "DIN (Director Identification Number) holders/ Directors/ Key Managerial Personnel" as well as certain professionals have been asked to obtain Aadhaar. Besides, professionals of the institutes of chartered accountants, company secretaries and cost accountants have also been asked to get Aadhaar as early as possible. This will be applicable irrespective of whether the individual is in "employment or in practice".