Direct Benefit Transfer results in significant savings across welfare schemes

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for subsidies has resulted in significant savings across welfare schemes, including Rs 27,000 crore in PDS, LPG distribution and MNREGS, a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was told.

The meeting was also informed that in 2015-16, an amount of over Rs 61,000 crore was distributed to over 30 crore beneficiaries using DBT, which included over Rs 25,000 crore in MGNREGS and over Rs 21,000 crore in PAHAL scheme for LPG distribution.

During the two-hour meeting to review the progress of Aadhaar and DBT programmes, the Prime Minister emphasised the importance of creating a platform that is error-free, and would ensure that the targeted beneficiaries receive their benefits in time, a PMO statement said.

The Prime Minister was informed about the progress made in Aadhaar number generation and seeding of official databases with Aadhaar numbers to streamline the process of identification of beneficiaries, and to ensure proper targeting of benefits to the people, it said.

"DBT has resulted in significant savings across welfare schemes. It has also resulted in weeding out of duplicate beneficiaries," the meeting was told last night, according to the PMO.

For instance, over 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted, resulting in savings of about Rs 10,000 crore. Similarly, 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries were weeded out in the PAHAL scheme, resulting in savings of over Rs 14,000 crore in 2014-15 alone, it said.

In MGNREGS too, a saving of Rs. 3000 crore (roughly 10 per cent) has been estimated in 2015-16, the statement added.

Several states and Union Territories too have achieved significant savings through DBT, it said.

The Prime Minister asked all departments concerned to ensure that as the new mechanisms are put in place, they do not result in causing inconvenience to any beneficiary.

Modi directed the officials to test their systems carefully before implementing them on a large scale.

The Prime Minister was also informed of steps taken towards a unique identifier for NGOs. Over 71,000 NGOs are now registered with the NGO Darpan portal maintained by NITI Aayog.