RBI extends deadline for Aadhaar-enabled PoS terminals by 6 months

Reserve Bank of India has suspended the compulsory implementation of Aadhaar-enabled Point of Sale terminals by a period of 6 months till June 2017 due to lack of proper capacity for the production of such machines in adequate numbers.

There is an apparent gap between the demand and supply of such Aadhaar-enabled devices due to limitations in capacity. The primary reason is the obvious pressure to install PoS terminals for cashless transactions. In addition there are ambiguities regarding flow of transactions as a second factor of authentication is unclear. These have to be standardized before the PoS manufacturers can develop the required Aadhaar-enabled machines as per the mentioned time frame.

In an earlier notice, RBI had directed that any new card device (POS machines or ATMs) installed by banks will have to be enabled to process all transactions using Aadhaar-based biometric verification (which could be either by punching Aadhaar number or other biometric verification).  After passing of the Aadhaar Act, Aadhar has become mandatory for all to avail any kind of financial benefits or subsidies.