The central government collected over Rs 100 crore in revenue by sharing Vahan and Sarathi databases to private entities, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Parliament on Thursday.
Vahan and Sarathi databases contain details of registered vehicles and driving licenses in the country.
In a reply to Lok Sabha question, the government issued a list of over 170 entities spanning auto, freight and insurance firms that had access to the database. The Home Ministry, BMW India, Axis Bank, Mercedes Benz, L&T Financial Services are some of the prominent companies mentioned in the list.
"The revenue collected by the government by providing access to VAHAN and SARATHI database is Rs 1,11,38,79,757," Gadkari said, adding that the Bulk data sharing Policy & Procedure had been scrapped by the BJP government.
The Centre also said that there was no proposal to force private players to delete the data provided by the government.
The private firms can purchase the data at Rs 3 crore per calendar year and Rs 5 lakh for education institutes using it for research. The firms would receive data dumps four times a year.
Earlier, the ministry dropped the bulk data sharing policy over potential misuse and other privacy issues. Currently, data on vehicles can be shared under the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019.