[Reader-list] Biometric cards: A great unifier (?)

[Taha Mehmood]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Policy/Biometric_cards_A_great_unifier/articleshow/4004500.cms

The Economic Times	
Economy

Biometric cards: A great unifier
20 Jan 2009, 0354 hrs IST, Shaji Vikraman, ET Bureau

 Early last year, Morocco decided to make it mandatory to have
national identity cards as part of measures to combat terrorism.
Within a span of
months, over a million biometric identity cards have been issued.

These cards encompass certificate of birth, residence and related
personal details, besides biometric data on a microchip—all of which
makes it eligible to be used as a identity document for travel. Over
the next few years, the National Security Service(DSGN) of Morocco
plans to issue 20 million such cards to anyone who is over 18 in that
kingdom.

A majority of countries in the European Union have such smart cards
. The US has a social security card while the UK has been pushing for
a national identity card. In India, an attempt to launch such a card
was aborted over seven years ago.

To an extent, the Permanent Account Number (PAN) serves as an identity
card although it was originally designed to track all financial
transactions over a period of time.

India's two depositories—NSDL and CDSL—now issue on an average a
million PAN cards a month. Close to 7 crore PAN cards have been issued
so far by the depositories on behalf of the income tax department
besides 2.5 million cards issued by the department itself.

The government has acknowledged that greater tax compliance over the
last few years has helped in boosting tax revenues. It is obvious that
once almost all financial transactions are covered under PAN, the
economic benefits it offers could be humungous.

Unlike a tiny African country like Morocco, India has the
infrastructure and capabilities to launch a national identity card
that could also help provide access to a host of public services.

Does the government need to jettison the existing PAN card if it
decides in favour of such a card? Not necessarily. All it needs to do
is adopt the same numbering structure which the PAN card has for a new
identity card and then instruct those holding such cards to go in for
biometric data over a period of time.

The key would be integrating these numbers with a new identify card.
The UK Home Office, which had proposed a national identity card had
made it clear that the card would not be designed to store, for
instance, tax records or data on ethnic origin or religion.

A working group constituted by the revenue department has done enough
work on taking the process forward, including the technology and
global practices.

Some countries have a multi-modal system where not only the facial
imagery and finger prints are captured but also the iris. These are
not new to India. A

few years ago, the securities market regulator made it mandatory for
high networth individuals, directors of firms and those working with
capital market intermediaries to provide biometric data as part of a
programme called MAPIN. Over four lakh people signed up before it was
called off by Sebi.

There are sensitivities involved in handling any such initiative,
which means that policymakers need to be mindful about the fact that
basic rights are respected. Some countries that have introduced
national ID cards have gone to great lengths to tell their citizens
that the cards would store basic information with laws to prevent any
potential misuse.

Given the volumes in India, the cost of issuing such a card ought to
be competitive. An indicative cost for a biometric card to cover over
100 crore citizens may be a little over $2 billion. In other words,
the annual expenditure for this card would be close to Rs 2,000 crore
for the government, assuming that it takes on the responsibility of
underwriting this project.

The government should be underwriting the expenses for a national ID
card only to those below a cut-off level, say below poverty line. Many
of those who have a PAN card should not find it difficult to pay Rs 50
or Rs 60 to convert their existing cards into smart cards.

Depositories already have 2,500 centres spread across the country for
issuing PAN cards. These can be utilised for the new initiative for ID
cards, although the challenge would be to reach those in the
hinterland.

What the government could do is to work out a time-frame by which a
national project to issue such cards would be implemented and
subsidise the cost partly for those who deserve it.

Home minister P Chidambaram is far more clued to this, having been
closely associated with the development of the depositories that are
the repositories of data. Given this backdrop, he is very well
equipped to take the initiative.