Govt likely to review Direct Benefit transfer fee to banks

Meager 1% commission may have been holding back banks from increasing seeding of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts

As 80,000 people got their first advance within four days after the launch of direct benefit transfer (DBT) on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the Centre is calling it a run-away hit, but issues of seeding Aadhaar number into bank accounts still persist.

The biggest question doing the rounds is whether a meager 1% transfer fee is what holding back the banks from increasing the seeding of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts.

With the banks crying for more monetary gains, the ministry is mulling to increase its commission to 2%. According to the petroleum and natural gas ministry, under the scheme launched on June 1 in 18 districts, more than 80,000 people got first advance for LPG while more than 2000 cylinders got delivered.

“We have so far disbursed Rs 2.7 crore under the scheme,” a ministry official added.

Till now, the seeding level of Aadhaar numbers with bank accounts is just over 20%, while the seeding of LPG data base with Aadhar numbers is slightly above 58%. On the other hand, Aadhaar penetration in these districts is around 90%. Officials believe that the problems related to banks needs to be addressed immediately.

“Banks are asking for a higher fee considering a lot of labour is involved in seeding of accounts. People don’t come to banks voluntarily for seeding their Aadhaar numbers. Perhaps LPG subsidy will be a game-changer,” said a bank executive, who did not wish to be identified.  

CVR Rajendran, Executive Director, Bank of Maharashtra, however, said transaction fee is not the issue at the moment. The biggest problem is that people who have got Aadhaar numbers are not coming forward for seeding with bank accounts.

“At the moment transactions are not happening. About 50% of accounts in our bank is not seeded… Fee structure may need to be revised later, if most accounts are no-frills,” Rajendran added.  

Last month, the government had decided to pay a commission of 1% to banks on the total amount transferred under the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme. The fee is being paid to compensate Banking Correspondents (BCs) who would help implement the scheme.

It would be paid only till the time necessary software tools to distinguish transactions completed through normal banking channels and BCs are in place.

The finance ministry said the commission would be paid subject to the condition that after the next six months, it would be examined by the banks whether the amount transferred through BCs is more than or equal to the amount transferred under DBT.

If it is found that the amount transferred through BCs is less than the amount transferred under DBT, the commission would be reduced on a pro-rata basis. Once, the technology is in place to assess the value of transactions carried out by BCs, commission at 2% of the amount actually transferred through BC under the DBT scheme would be given.