Claims That Aadhaar Enabled Payments Will Not Work Till April 14 False

The government and the Reserve Bank of India have denied that Aadhaar enabled Payment Systems (AePS) will not be functional, as being claimed by multiple posts on Facebook. The posts advises readers not to withdraw cash from the State Bank of India through AePS, as the servers handling these payments have been shut from the RBI's end till April 14; adding that any payments that are made in this interim could be "stuck in the server."

The text of the claim reads:

Example of posts on Facebook can be seen below. This post has taken many forms on Facebook.

April 14 happens to be the last day of the ongoing nationwide 21-day shutdown, which has been extended in a few states such as Odhisha, Maharashtra and Punjab. No formal announcement of an extension has come from the central government, and from many states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to address the nation on April 14, and is expected to announce the path forward.

AePS is a payment system that facilities payments through one's Aadhaar Card. Users can withdraw cash, deposit cash and transfer funds by authenticating transactions biometrically through their Aadhaar-linked bank account. Transaction Data of financial year 2019-2020 from the National Payments Corporation of India shows that AePS processed 17.2 crore (172 million) transaction in March, with a value of ₹10,170 crores.

Factcheck

BOOM contacted a senior official of the RBI, who told us:

The content of this post is false. Our systems are working 24x7.

Further, the government, through the Press Information Bureau too refuted this message.

RBI data shows that during March 2020, when a nation-wide lockdown was announced to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, people withdrew four times more cash than average.