22.11.17

Property Deals to be Linked to Aadhaar

Union housing minister Hardeep Puri said property transactions will be linked to Aadhaar soon. Puri said such a move would go a long way in sucking out black money from real estate and also help in crackdown on benami properties.

“Seeding Aadhaar to property transactions is a great idea, but I’m not going to make an announcement on that. We are already linking Aadhaar to bank accounts etc, and we can take some additional steps for property market also,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has indicated several times that the government would crack down on benami property. Aadhaar linkage could be one part of that drive. Puri is the first union minister to confirm that Aadhaar linkage with property transactions would indeed be made mandatory.

When asked if seeding Aadhaar with property is a logical conclusion of the government's drive to push Aadhaar to bring transparency in economy, Puri said, “Absolutely, that’s the way it's heading anyway. I have no doubt that it will happen.”

However, according to Puri, while no one can absolutely enforce that a transaction between two individuals is completely transparent, large-value transactions such as property and air tickets could definitely be monitored.

“There is no economy in the world that is entirely cashless. However, people do not feel the need of carrying large wads of cash around in economies that have stable system. That’s the way we are heading,” he said.

Mandatory Aadhaar linkage to innumerable government schemes and for identification has generated a lot of debate. Several petitions against the Aadhaar linkage are being heard in the court.

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