Domestic LPG and payouts under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme are soon to be brought under direct benefit transfer , popularly known as direct cash transfer.
This will see the beginning of second phase of DBT.
“Direct Benefit Transfer for LPG could be introduced as early as from March 15 or by April 1 in 20 districts (4 in Andhra Pradesh, 3 each in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, 2 each in Delhi and Daman & Diu and one each in Punjab, Chandigarh and Puducherry),” a senior government official told
These are the same 20 districts where DBT was launched for seven schemes on January 1 this year. These districts are among the 43 districts in 16 states which have been identified for introduction of DBT in the first phase to be completed by March 1.
The officials also said that the DBT for LPG could be introduced in 43 districts together. DBT will allow transfer of subsidy into the bank account of connection holder using the UIDAI (the authority which issues Aadhaar Number) platform. The present rule prescribes subsidy of five cylinders for September-March, 2012-13 while from April 1, it will be nine cylinders for full financial year. Currently, there is a subsidy of Rs 410.50 on each of the subsidised domestic LPG cylinder.
Admitting that Aadhaar cards are yet to be issued to all the beneficiaries, the Government has already clarified that credit in a bank account will take place and withdrawals will be allowed from the same too, even if such an account is not linked with Aadhaar. But the goal is to seed Aadhaar in each of them. Oil marketing company officials said they are yet to receive any official communication from the Government, but claimed that they are ready to be part of the new system. The Government is running a pilot project for DBT related with domestic LPG in Mysore, Pune and Hyderabad.
Asked about kerosene, an official said that currently, it was not on the agenda. “There are lot of issues especially preparation of the list of beneficiaries and creating bank accounts for each of them. So no decision has been taken on that,” he said.
The official also said that effort is on to ready post offices in rural areas to roll out DBT for the rural job scheme.
“All the post offices in rural areas have been asked to get lists of beneficiaries and also the micro biometric ATMs by June 1, 2013,” he mentioned. The Rural Development Ministry is also pushing for allowing post office saving accounts to be used for all purposes. Such accounts were opened exclusively for wage payment.
The Finance Ministry is asking public sector banks to cover 6.40 lakh villages under the financial inclusion programme by December 31, 2013.
Shishir.Sinha@thehindu.co.in