The government’s savings of direct benefit transfer (DBT) has surged 58% to Rs 32,984 crore in FY18, from Rs 20,885 crore in FY17. The government had launched direct benefit transfer scheme in 2014. From when total DBT savings till FY18-end was Rs 90,013 crore. In FY18, the jump in DBT could be largely attributed to increased use of Aadhaar-enabled DBT platforms for in-kind food and fertiliser subsidy distribution.
Out of the DBT-enabled gains of Rs 32,984 crore in FY18, removal of fake beneficiaries helped in saving Rs 15,708 crore, which is 48% in the public distribution system for food, Rs 12,506 crore, which is 38% under LPG-Pahal scheme and Rs 4,332 crore , which is 13% under the job guarantee programme (MGNREGS).
Besides, in last financial year 2018 transfer of assorted subsidies and sops to the beneficiaries through the DBT route surged 2.5 times to Rs 1.91 lakh crore as compared to previous year, leading to savings to the government of Rs 984 crore, up 58% year-on-year.
In financial year 2017, savings of Rs 42,275 crore was made under LPG-Pahal scheme, followed by Rs 29,708 crore for PDS-food, Rs 16,073 crore under the job guarantee scheme. Between FY14 and FY18, the government had transferred around Rs 3.7 lakh crore, mostly as cash paid to their bank accounts but also (increasingly) as in-kind benefits.
According to an estimate by the government, the Aadhaar-enabled DBT platform helped eliminate 3.79 crore fake LPG connections, 2.75 crore duplicate ration cards and resulted in 10% savings on wages on account of deletion of non-existent MGNREGS beneficiaries.
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