Department spokesperson Siya Qoza said the new tariff structure will take effect on July 1, alongside the rollout of an upgraded online verification system (OVS).
“For more than a decade, banks and financial service providers have only paid 15 cents per real-time verification. This is far below the market-related rates and well below the cost to the state. It deprived home affairs of resources required to maintain the NPR,” said Qoza.
According to Qoza, the underpricing enabled widespread exploitation.
“Extreme underpricing led to profiteering and abuses by some users. It overwhelmed the NPR and caused failure rates more than 50%, contributing to ‘system offline’ errors at home affairs offices and threatening national security,” he said.
He said some exploited the broken system to run overpriced services, leading home affairs to charge R10 for real-time and R1 for batch checks.
“Some users then went on to exploit the unreliability of the system created by their excessive use, to create third-party verification services that charge prices vastly in excess of those paid to home affairs.
“This two-tier structure offers a cost-effective alternative that also helps reduce live queue overloads, improving system performance across the board,” Qoza said.
Home affairs minister Dr Leon Schreiber said the R10 charge will apply to real-time verifications during peak hours.
“This is a matter of national security. A healthy NPR is critical to combating identity crime, boosting financial inclusion, and eventually launching a functional digital ID. We must rise above narrow profiteering and invest in a secure, reliable national identity system,” Schreiber said.
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Home affairs hikes client detail check fee from 15c to R10
Image: MICHAEL PINYANA
The department of home affairs will now charge banks and other government users R10 to verify customer details in the National Population Register (NPR).
This will be a 98,5% increase from the 15c that the department previously charged per verification.
The department said the 15c price was extreme underpricing which enabled abuse and profiteering by some users.
Department spokesperson Siya Qoza said the new tariff structure will take effect on July 1, alongside the rollout of an upgraded online verification system (OVS).
“For more than a decade, banks and financial service providers have only paid 15 cents per real-time verification. This is far below the market-related rates and well below the cost to the state. It deprived home affairs of resources required to maintain the NPR,” said Qoza.
According to Qoza, the underpricing enabled widespread exploitation.
“Extreme underpricing led to profiteering and abuses by some users. It overwhelmed the NPR and caused failure rates more than 50%, contributing to ‘system offline’ errors at home affairs offices and threatening national security,” he said.
He said some exploited the broken system to run overpriced services, leading home affairs to charge R10 for real-time and R1 for batch checks.
“Some users then went on to exploit the unreliability of the system created by their excessive use, to create third-party verification services that charge prices vastly in excess of those paid to home affairs.
“This two-tier structure offers a cost-effective alternative that also helps reduce live queue overloads, improving system performance across the board,” Qoza said.
Home affairs minister Dr Leon Schreiber said the R10 charge will apply to real-time verifications during peak hours.
“This is a matter of national security. A healthy NPR is critical to combating identity crime, boosting financial inclusion, and eventually launching a functional digital ID. We must rise above narrow profiteering and invest in a secure, reliable national identity system,” Schreiber said.
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