Govt earned over Rs 100 crores by sharing vehicle registration data with private entities: Gadkari

New Delhi: The government has earned over Rs 100 crores by providing access to Vahan and Sarathi databases to private entities, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Parliament on Thursday.

The data has been shared with law enforcement agencies, the home ministry, auto, freight and insurance companies. A list of around 170 parties with which the two databases have been shared include BMW, Axis Bank, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, L&T Financial Services, Mercedes Benz, among others.

“The revenue collected by the Government by providing access to Vahan and Sarathi database is Rs 1,11,38,79,757,” Gadkari said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The transport ministry has, however, discarded the bulk data sharing policy issued in 2019 which allowed the ministry to share the Vahan and Sarathi databases, which contain details of registered vehicles and driving licenses in the country.

The ministry of road transport and highways in June last year junked the policy citing potential misuse of personal information and privacy issues.

Further, in response to a question whether the government would demand deletion of such data collected by private entities, Gadkari said that “no such proposal was under consideration.”

Under the bulk data sharing policy, organisations could purchase the data for one calendar year at any time. For every year of purchase of data, they would receive the same in four data dumps.

Commercial organisations and individuals seeking the bulk data could access it at a price of Rs 3 crore, while educational institutes could use the same for research and educational purposes for Rs 500,000. The rates were applicable for 2019-20.

ET reported on June 25 last year that officials from the ministries of home affairs and transport, and the National Informatics Centre unanimously decided to discard the policy.

Sharing of vehicular data will now be done on the basis of the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.

“It was decided that rather than sharing the bulk data with any company or organization on the cost basis, reports generated on the basis of analysis of the vehicular data available in the National Register on the portal may be shared for use of Citizens or Stakeholders,” read the minutes of the meeting wherein the decision was taken.