Want to invest in stock market and mutual funds? Get your Aadhaar card now

You may soon need an Aadhaar card to bet on stock market and invest in mutual funds as the Indian Government and market regulator SEBI is planning to link the UID number with financial market transactions.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Centre are looking at different ways to curb conversion of black money into white and one of the suggestions is to link stock market trading to Aadhaar.

As per various reports, the government has said having a Permanent Account Number (PAN) is not the only way to plug tax evasion or leaks.

"We have been told that making Aadhaar compulsory is in the offing,” an official told ET.

Recently, the government made it mandatory to link PAN card with Aadhaar.

"Linking financial market transactions to Aadhaar will be an important step to make India a corruption-free country,” Nirmal Jain, chairman, IIFL Group, told ET.

"For some of the regional players, the bigger worry is how many clients will remain once Aadhaar is made mandatory. There will certainly be a dip in activity even in IPO market but that will be temporary,” CEO of a brokerage told ET.