[Reader-list] News Items posted on the net on Multipurpose National Identity Cards-89

[Taha Mehmood]

http://cricket.expressindia.com/old//fulliestory.php?content_id=43919

Indian Express
Tuesday, November 02, 2004

PANoramic view of delivery mechanisms

My wife applied for a PAN card. Not a PAN number, which she already
possesses. But a PAN card. Why do you need a PAN card if you already
have a PAN number?

Today is November 2, and I am about to lose a bet. Losing a bet with
your spouse is always a good idea, so that doesn't bother me. What
bothers me is the issue on which I have lost the best. My wife applied
for a PAN card. Not a PAN number, which she already possesses. But a
PAN card. Why do you need a PAN card if you already have a PAN number?
Seems like a useful kind of thing to have, since PAN cards are
increasingly becoming like identity cards. Various people ask for
them.

Certainly, Vijay Kelkar is no longer around and we don't know what's
going to happen to the assorted Kelkar recommendations. However,
somewhere down the line, there may be insistence on PAN cards. As long
as issuing of PAN cards was with the income tax department, my wife
didn't bother. But once this service was shifted to the Unit Trust of
India, she decided to apply. Notice, I am deliberately using the word
service. Because you are paying Rs 60 for the card. This is for people
who already have a number. And since you are specifically paying money
for "the new tamper proof PAN card, with several security features",
this is service against a fee. There is a quid pro quo and the card
should be yours as a matter of right.

How long does issuing a card take? The security features aren't
remarkably different from what you have on a driving licence or a
credit card. Once all the other approvals are done, a driving licence
is virtually instant. You get it the same day. A credit card, perhaps,
takes a couple of days. If you already have a PAN number, logically,
the card shouldn't therefore take more than a couple of days. But in
the government, it is best to play safe. Hence, the form tells you:
"The PAN card will be issued within 10 working days from the date of
receipt at PAN Service Centre. However, during the first six months
effective from 1st July 2003, the PAN card will be issued in 15
working days from the date of receipt at PAN Service Centre". Notice
the careful use of the expression "working day" rather than day. You
have no right to presume that UTI Investor Services works all the
time. So, 10 to 15 working days it is.


I haven't yet told you what the bet was. But before that, I need to
tell you when my wife applied. Nov-ember 11, 2003. I am not making
this up, the date is absolutely right. My wife is always sceptical
about what the government (or if you like, the extended government)
does. I tend to be a bit more optimistic and gullible. That explains
the bet. I said: "You will get the PAN card within a year. The service
has been outsourced now". My wife refused to believe me. We are nine
days (not working days) away from that one-year deadline and the card
hasn't arrived. Since I believe the government, I can only deduce that
UTI hasn't had 10 (or 15) working days in an entire year.

• In any service delivery, you would exp-ect a system of registering complaints
• Ask any poor person what it takes to get a birth or death certificate
• A general I-card instead of multiple cards is what is really needed
If you have a problem, you should complain. As my wife indeed did.
After all, what are the telephone numbers on the form for? Once she
got through, she was told the PAN card had been printed.
Unfortunately, her PAN number has an "O" in it. By mistake, the card
printed a zero instead. The problem would be rectified. Fair enough.
But that was exactly nine months ago. Evidently, a country that
invented the zero has great difficulty in relinquishing zeroes!

In any service delivery, you would expect a system of formally
registering complaints. And there should be a system whereby UTI shows
this register of complaints to finance ministry, so that finance can
keep track of UTI's complaint redressal system. If that's not
satisfactory, the outsourcing should go somewhere else. To the private
sector. After all, once you already have a PAN number, there should be
no great secrecy involved in printing the card. However, that would be
expecting too much. No doubt finance occasionally asks UTI how the
outsourcing is going on and no doubt UTI Investor Services tells North
Block that a fabulous job is being done.

That's the reason I shudder about some of the things the government
proposes. Look at it this way. The PAN card doesn't really matter that
much to my wife. She has her PAN number and other ways of establishing
her identity. Consider, at random, the proposed National Employment
Guarantee Act and labour ministry's draft on this. "The registering
authority specified under this Act shall prepare and maintain such
register or registers in such manner and issue such identity cards or
pass books as may be prescribed". Eliot said the bare facts are birth,
copulation and death. Let's leave copulation out of it. But ask any
poor person what it takes to get a birth or death certificate. Ask him
or her what it takes to get the various other certificates or
quasi-identity cards needed between the activities of birth and death.
Life is somewhat different for those who have access to gazetted
officers compared to those who have not.

At least the Rs 60 my wife forked out was transparent payment and no
further monetary compensation was needed. The bribes paid by the poor
are non-transparent and arbitrary. In addition, for the same service,
bribes paid by the poor are paradoxically more than bribes paid by the
relatively rich. Six years ago, we did a Delhi-based sample survey for
ration cards. Trying to quantify the illegal payment. The average for
relatively rich people (who have driving licences, passports) was
between Rs 150-200. But that for relatively poor people (who have no
other means of identification) was between Rs 600-800. The data may be
dated, but I don't think the thrust of the contention will have
changed.

The generic issue we always come back to is that of a general I-card
system, instead of multiple quasi-identity cards required for multiple
purposes. Shouldn't be too difficult to implement something like that,
provided we accept the premise that outsourcing has to be genuine.
Instead of the government outsourcing to an extended government
organisation like UTI.