Lok Sabha Question No. 1817 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-07-27
Subject: Failure of Biometric Authentication
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Kalyan Banerjee

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1817

TO BE ANSWERED ON 27.07.2022

## FAILURE OF BIOMETRIC AUTHENTICATION

## 1817.    SHRI KALYAN BANERJEE:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has report on failure of biometric authentication due to frequent errors arising out of Aadhaar authentication processes;
- (b) if so, the steps taken to address over eighteen per cent authentication failure due to biometric mismatch in Aadhaar data;
- (c) the measures taken with the Finance Ministry for the persons who have failed to link Aadhaar with pan or update with voter card; and
- (d)  the  recent  report  of  Comptroller  and  Auditor  General  of  India  on  the  accountability  of  Unique Identification Authority of India functioning and process compliance therein?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR   ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

- (a): Yes  Sir,  the  failure  of  the  identity  authentication  through  Biometric  are  attributed  to  various  factors namely, improper capture of biometric due to worn-out finger print minutia, finger not placed properly on device, network failure related errors, etc.
- (b): To  increase  the  success  rate  of  identity  authentication  through  biometric,  UIDAI  constantly  provides training  to  authentication  operators  through  its  Regional  Offices  and  encourages  the  use  of  identity authentication via Iris devices for residents of old age and whose finger print minutia are worn out.
- (c): The Aadhaar-PAN linking has started from 01.07.2017. The Government kept on extending the date for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to facilitate the PAN holder to link their PAN with Aadhaar. The last date for AadhaarPAN  linking without paying any fee was 31st March, 2022. However,  considering the inconvenience which will be faced by the taxpayers, Ministry of Finance, CBDT, vide Notification dated 29th March  2022,  has  provided  a  window  of  opportunity  to  the  taxpayers  upto  31st  March,  2023  to  link  their Aadhaar with PAN, after paying certain fee, failing which PAN of taxpayers who fail to link their Aadhaar shall become inoperative.

Also, as per The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 notified by Ministry of Law and Justice, Legislative Department on 30.12.2021, section 23(6) of the notification provides that-

'(6) No application for inclusion of name in the electoral roll shall be denied and no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed:

Provided that such individual may be allowed to furnish such other alternate documents as may be prescribed.'

(d): Recommendations  of  the  CAG's  Audit  Report  No.  24  of  2021-(MeitY)  on  'Performance  Audit  on Functioning of UIDAI' have been accepted for implementation. Action taken report has been uploaded on Audit Para Monitoring System (APMS) (https://apms.nic.in/).

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