Hoping to give a push to its ambitious scheme for cash transfer of subsidies, the Centre is in talks with nodal ministries and implementing agencies to expand the ambit of direct benefit transfer and Aadhaar seeding to all 536 schemes by the end of the year.

“The objective is that service providers as well as service receivers in all these schemes should be identified by Aadhaar and paid through DBT,” said an official, adding that it will be a part of all Central schemes within the next one to two years.

At present just 84 central schemes are under 17 Ministries are included under DBT. But, since its launch in 2014, the Centre has been keen to ensure that all schemes which involve cash transfers or subsidy payments should be on board the DBT platform.

All nodal ministries are now expected to also notify Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act, 2016 which mandates that Aadhaar must be provided by an individual for authenticating his identity “as a condition for receipt of subsidy, benefit or service for which expenditure is incurred from… the Consolidated Fund of India”.

Apart from beneficiaries, even workers for ASHA and Anganwadi schemes, Yoga training centres and AIDS control programmes will also receive payments through DBT by electronic fund transfers.

“This is now being done by all Ministries. Their IT systems will also be aligned and DBT will be used for all payments,” said the official.

The move is expected to help the government to weed out duplicate and ghost beneficiaries, cut down corruption and plug leakages.

Data with the DBT Mission reveal that using cash transfers, the Centre transferred ₹53,171.25 crore between April and December 2016.

It also saved ₹49,560 crore in 2016 in schemes including PAHAL, food subsidy, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and National Social Assistance Programme.

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