Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Helped Modi-Govt Save More Than Rs 1.70 Lakh Crore

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), wherein money is transferred to eligible beneficiaries through Jan Dhan Accounts and other Aadhaar verified accounts, have saved more than Rs 1.70 crore government money from the falling into the hands of middlemen and bogus beneficiaries, an IANS report said.

Calling it the 'JAM Trinity' (using Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile), the report further said that the direct transfer has made it easier to identify bogus beneficiaries and preventing leakages across 351 schemes of 51 ministries.

In the last six years, Rs 12,95,468 crore has been disbursed to beneficiaries' accounts under the DBT plan, the news agency said adding that in 2020-21, Rs 2,10,244 crore were sent directly to the accounts as part of schemes such as MGNREGA, PDS, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), among others.

In MGNREGA, till December 2019, 5.55 lakh bogus labourers had been weeded out from the scheme, it said, ensuring a save of Rs 24,162 crore.

Similarly, the DBT scheme helped detect 98.8 lakh bogus beneficiaries in schemes under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, preventing misuse of Rs 1,523.75 crore.

Making the linking of Aadhaar and mobile mandatory saved more than Rs 66,000 crore in government ration distribution from going to a total of 2.98 crore bogus beneficiaries. According to data available on the website of the Direct Benefit Transfer Scheme, 51 ministries prevented a total of Rs 1,70,377.11 crore from going into the wrong hands till 31 December 2019.