SIM dealers to be verified now

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The government has made verification mandatory for dealers selling SIM cards. The verification will be done by the telecom operator. It has also disallowed the provision of selling SIM cards in bulk. The move is aimed at checking the digital frauds. These measures were annoiunced by Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday. A  penalty of Rs 10 lakh will be imposed on violators. “Indisputable verification of SIM dealers will be mandatory to curb frauds. Penalty of Rs 10 lakh will be imposed on dealers found violating norms,” Vaishnaw said. The verification will be done by telecom operators who will collect the details of each business owner and his business related documents for verification before appointing a dealer. Earlier, detailed documentation of dealer was not prescribed in the rule. There are about 10 lakh SIM card dealers and they will get sufficient time for verification. The Department of Telecommunications in a statement shared that in addition to thumb impression and iris-based authentication in Aadhaar e-KYC process, facial based biometric authentication is also permitted. “In case of disconnection of a mobile number, it will not be allocated to any other new customer till expiry of 90 days. A subscriber has to undertake complete KYC for replacement of his SIM and there will be bar of 24 hours on outgoing and incoming SMS facilities,” the statement said. The verification of point of sales will be carried out by telecom operators. The move on verification is expected to eliminate the rogue PoS who by fraudulent practices issue SIMs to anti-social and anti-national elements. The process will mandates a written agreement between the dealer and the licensees. In case of any illegal activity by the dealer, his licence will be terminated and would be blacklisted for three years.

All the existing PoS will be registered as per this process by licensees within 12 months. “Besides, KYC of businesses, KYC of person taking handover of SIM will also be done,” Vaishnaw said.