Aadhar part of wider remit to Nilekani panel on direct subsidies

To provide a delivery mechanism for better targeting of subsidies, the Union finance ministry on Tuesday expanded the terms of reference of the Nandan Nilekani task force to recommend a unified architecture for direct transfer of subsidies to beneficiaries using Aadhaar, the new citizen identification number.

“It has been decided to extend the terms of reference to include an Aadhaar-enabled unified payment infrastructure,” the ministry said in a statement here.

The final report of the task force, set up in February to recommend on direct subsidies on kerosene, cooking gas and fertiliser, has been asked for within three months. It gave an interim report on July 5.

A member each from the Reserve Bank of India, Indian Banks Association, the National Informatics Centre, the Controller General of Accounts and the National Payments Corporation of India have been added to the task force.

The payment infrastructure proposed is aimed at direct transfer of subsidy funds by ministries and state governments into any Aadhaar-enabled bank account, on the basis of the unique identification number.

The task force has also been asked to “recommend an architecture for e-banking through inter-operable business correspondents and examine alignment of current standards for devices that will be deployed by them”. A system for the delivery of financial services using mobile phones is also to be considered by the task force.

Recommendations on a “robust, customer support and grievance redressal mechanism” have also been sought from it.

In its interim report on direct transfer of subsidies, the Nilekani panel had suggested direct cash transfers through banks, ATMs and even mobile banking for beneficiaries of kerosene, LPG and fertiliser subsidies.