Budget 2018: Aadhaar-like unique ID for firms soon

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech on Thursday announced that every enterprise across the country would get a unique identification number at the time of registration, on the lines of Aadhaar.

“Aadhaar has provided an identity to every Indian. It has eased delivery of so many public services to our people. Every enterprise, major or small, also needs a unique ID. The government will evolve a scheme to assign every individual enterprise in India a unique ID,” Jaitley said.

The move was lauded by employers, who said companies need to maintain at least 25 registration numbers at present. “We had proposed creating a universal enterprise number — a sort of Aadhaar for enterprises — by which a single number would replace 25-plus numbers every enterprise have to operate as a legitimate business in India. 

It’s heartening to hear that the government will evolve a scheme to assign individual enterprises a unique ID,” Rituparna Chakraborty, president, Indian Staffing Federation, said.

At present, 1.19 billion people have been issued Aadhaar, which constitutes roughly 99 per cent of the population.