The government may extend the deadline for biometric re-registration of mobile SIM cards by 15 days or more from the current deadline of April 30.State Minister for Posts and Telecommunications Tarana Halim is likely to announce the extension time, sources at the ministry told UNB. They said the decision came at a meeting on the progress of biometric re-registration of SIMs held at the Secretariat on Thursday. Talking to reporters before attending the meeting, Tarana Halim told reporters that the government will announce on April 30 whether the deadline of biometric re-registration will be extended or not. Meanwhile, mobile phone operators have requested the government to extend the deadline. A mobile telecom operator submitted a letter to the junior minister urging for extending the deadline by at least two months, noting that the re-registration process has been delayed for various reasons including writ petition filed against biometric re-registration with the High Court and technical disruptions, according to ministry sources.So far, all the mobile phone operators managed to complete the registration of nearly 7.79 crore of SIMs’ under the system successfully as of Wednesday evening while some 1.21 lakh SIMs could not be registered for various reasons, including fingerprint mismatch with the those of National Identity (NID) cards.The country has more than 13 crore mobile SIM users.The process of re-registering SIMs/RIUMs under the biometric system began on December 16 last.
