NID verification won’t be free anymore

The government is set to impose fees for verifying a National Identity Card, soon, primarily to earn revenue and improve authentication services, officials said.

The designated people or organisations intending to prove an NID will have to pay the ICT Division Tk 5, from now onward, they added.

Authorities have determined four different fees for authenticating an ID, designating them as basic, autofill, facial recognition and biometric where the charges will be Tk 5, Tk 10, Tk 15 and Tk 20, respectively.

The information and ICT ministry introduced the card verification services through a state-run website nearly three years ago.

The decision of levying the service charges and service guideline website verification were tabled at an inter-ministerial meeting on March 15 at the Information and Communication Technology Division.

Endorsing the charges, an official of the ICT ministry said it is a source of revenue generation for the governments across the world.

The ICT Division, in phases, developed the state websites designed for verifying the NIDs, he said.

The ICT ministry’s proposal to introduce Tk 5 as a fee for confirming an NID will be placed at the cabinet meeting this Monday for approval.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to preside over the meeting.

According to the ICT ministry proposal, the verification of the NID cards rose dramatically during the Covid-19 pandemic as hundreds of thousands of people tried to register for being vaccinated across the country.

Most of the people who wanted to register their names on Surokkha App failed because of technical glitch and other issues, the proposal reads.

The fees will be distributed among the parties — the Government of Bangladesh (data owner), Bangladesh Computer Council and managed service provider Dgcom Global Services — at 1:1:3 ratios. The government’s portion will be deposited to the exchequer as non-tax revenue.

Last January the ICT ministry finalised the guideline on imposing the service charges or service value in consultation with Managed Service Provider firm DGCOM Global Services Limited.

“There will be a system in apps that will ensure taking the service charges through a payment before verifying an NID card and other services,” ICT Division Secretary NA Zillual Alam told the Business Insider Bangladesh.

ICT Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Sajeeb Wazed Joy had launched the state website designed for verifying NID Cards in July of 2019 in the easiest and quick ways.

He had launched the portal ‘www.porichoy.gov.bd’ at a ceremony held at ICT Tower in Agargaon.  

Sajeeb Wazed Joy said, “We want to deliver state services to people in easy and fastest ways. And aiming for that, we are working restlessly. We target 90 percent of state services available in people’s mobile phones, just close to the finger.”

He had also said, “I hope people don’t need to go to government offices to avail the government services.”

The app ‘Porichoy’ is currently being used to authenticate an NID card via a gateway server linked to the database of Election Commission.

The gateway is now preventing faking IDs and ensuring safety and privacy. It will accelerate the tasks where registration with NIDs is required.

Meanwhile, the government is contemplating to issue National Identity Cards to 12-year old boys and girls across the country, officials said.