Dhaka, Oct 22—Regulatory bodies have urged the Election Commission to make display of the National Identification Card compulsory for opening bank accounts, Beneficiary Owners (BO) accounts and taking bank loans.
In a meeting with the commission on Thursday, central bank governor Atiur Rahman, finance ministy's banking division chief Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman Patwari and Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) chief Khairul Hossain gave their views in support of the move.
However, the commission said that the move should wait until online verification of the information on the National IDs is possible.
"We have suggested making compulsory the show of National IDs for opening accounts and taking loans. We have placed details of our recommendation. Now it's up to the commission to make its decision," SEC chief Khairul Hossain told bdnews24.com.
Election commissioner Mohammad Sohul Hossain explained the commission's position.
"We are preparing to allow online verification of National IDs. But, until then it will not be fair to impose the decision," he said.
A policy is being drafted on the usage of personal information submitted and stored to the commission for National IDs. The commission has plans of launching the online verification soon in line with the policy after providing all citizens with error-free National IDs.
"Online verification will help bar individuals from opening several bank and BO accounts and taking fake loans under different names. It would also reduce other but similar crimes," the commissioner added.
The National Identity Registration Act 2010 allows service-providers to ask for display or submission of copies of the National IDs to verify identities of individuals seeking service or citizens' benefits.
It also says that the commission will be responsible to carry out related activities including carrying out registration drives, manufacturing, distributing and maintaining the IDs.
FAKE ID
Until now, more than 850 million voters have been given National IDs. However, a mentionable chunk of the IDs given in the first session have spelling and information errors, EC officials said.
Also, at least 1.5 million citizens have not yet been given the IDs as the voter list has not been updated. The updating will start at the end of this year.
"The imposition by organisations like some banks, which made national IDs compulsory before adequate measures were taken, has barred reaching the intended goal. Since there is no way to verify the IDs, there has been huge rush to create fake IDs," additional commission secretary Sirajul Islam said.
"The companies will have to start a verification process to stop such illegal activities and the EC is now ready to give this scope."
Fake IDs can be easily distinguished barring offenders from taking bank loans under false names or opening multiple bank and BO accounts.
The national registration act has provisions for maximum seven-year prison terms and Tk 0.1 million fines for counterfeiting IDs.
news from:bdnews24.com
No comments:
Post a Comment