Fees for national ID cards set
Shakhawat Liton
A person will have to pay fees to get permanent national ID cards, the home ministry has decided.
The ministry has also finalised the draft ordinance for mandatory use of the cards.
According to the rules, a citizen will have to pay Tk 30 for a permanent paper-laminated card and Tk 40 for a copy of that card, Tk 250 for a plastic card and Tk 500 for a smart card--a small plastic card on which information is electronically stored. The charge for correction of information on the cards has been fixed at Tk 20.
Officials involved said these rules will be formulated once the mandatory use of national ID card for getting services in 19 fields is made a law.
"We have finalised the draft ordinance for making the law for mandatory use of the identity cards. The draft will be sent to the advisory council soon for approval," a senior official told The Daily Star yesterday.
The home ministry formed a committee comprising officials of ministries concerned to finalise the rules. The committee headed by a senior home ministry official will sit on October 25 to finalise the draft rules, sources said.
Currently the EC is simultaneously preparing the voter list with photographs and national ID cards only for citizens eligible to be registered as voters. The registered voters will be given temporary national ID cards, which will be replaced by the permanent cards.
People ineligible now as voters will have to wait for an indefinite time to get the national ID card as the responsibility of preparing national ID cards for them does not lie with the EC.
According to the draft ordinance, the government will set up a national registration and database authority for preparing the national ID cards. The authority will remain as a permanent body and continue collecting particulars of those who could not have ID cards to prepare and issue national ID cards to them.
One will have to show national ID card for getting new passport and driving licence or for their renewal, Taxpayer Identification Number, business identification number, trade licence, admit cards of public examinations, applying for jobs, opening bank accounts and getting loan from banks and micro-credit institutions, drawing government allowances, sale and purchase of land and properties, voting in different elections and participating in insurance schemes, admission to educational institutions, marriage registration, purchasing vehicles, connection of gas, electricity, water, telephone, mobile phone, internet and cable for satellite TV channels, government facilities like subsidy and assistance, filing of cases, appeal or petition with the court, applying for share and opening of BO account and other services and facilities.
The draft ordinance has also proposed a provision authorising the government to relax the stringent conditions for the use of the national ID cards.
Pls share ur opinions about this.................