Letter from NPR a valid document for KYC process, says RBI

Even as protests rage over the National Population Registry (NPR), a letter from the registry with your name and address on it has been made a valid document for banks’ Know Your Customer (KYC) drive.

As per RBI’s directive to banks, a letter from the NPR containing details of name and address is now among the list of Officially Valid Documents (OVDs) to be accepted by banks for opening an account or for meeting any other KYC norms.

The others among the OVD list are Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, driving licence, NREGA job card and the Aadhaar card.

Banks are also gearing up to accept NPR data following the direction. A Central Bank of India notification has created a flutter, with a few twitterati wondering how it can ask for an NPR letter, as work is yet to commence.

The bank released a notification asking its customers to submit KYC details before January 31, 2020. The list of KYC documents that it sought included the NPR letter. Those who fail to submit the details cannot withdraw/transfer money, the bank said.

When contacted, a senior SBI official said KYC updation has been a ‘routine and regular process’ and banks will have to adhere to RBI’s KYC norms in letter and spirit.

A top executive of a public sector bank said as the NPR is a database containing a list of all usual residents of the country, there is ‘nothing wrong’ in linking it with the KYC exercise. The NPR is generated through house-to-house enumeration during the “house-listing” phase of the Census, which will be done in 2021. A usual resident for the purposes of the NPR is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more, and intends to reside there for another six months or more.

A hot-button issue

While the Census is carried out once in every 10 years, what makes the NPR exercise significant now is the ongoing protests across the country against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC).