Savings through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under various welfare schemes by the Central government crossed ₹50,000 crore in Fiscal Year 2021-22 latest update on government portal shows. In FY 2020-21, it was estimated at ₹44,000 crore.

The Government says that DBT and other governance reforms have led to removal of duplicate/ fake beneficiaries and plugging of leakages etc., and due to this the government has been able to target the genuine and deserving beneficiaries. As on date DBT is used in 312 schemes, being implemented by 53 Central Ministries and Departments.

Data shows, maximum gain was seen in Public Distribution system (PDS) where government managed to save ₹33,600 crore. This happened mainly on account of deletion of 4.2 crore duplicate and fake/non-existent Ration Cards (since 2013 till 2021). Also, it needs to be noted that during FY 22, government distributed free foodgrains to 80 crore people.

Although subsidy for fertilizer not given directly to farmers but to the manufacturers,, estimated saving was around ₹8,700 crore in FY22. This happened as there was Reduction of 158.06 lakh tonnes of fertilizer sale to retailers.

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) saw saving of over ₹7’,500 crore. The portal says based on field studies Ministry has estimated 10 per cent savings on wages on account of deletion of duplicate, fake/ non-existent, ineligible beneficiaries.

Issues in DBT

A survey by Dvara Research found a variety of exclusionary factors at every stage of the delivery pipeline of DBT. The survey was based on response from around 2,500 respondents in seven States — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The agency has also given recommendations for improvement in enrolment and grievance redress mechanism.

Based on the responses, the agency has listed three issues each related with enrolment and receiving the payment. For example, one of the most prominent issues faced by citizens attempting to enroll is the lack of accessibility/proximity to enrolment points, unavailability, or erratic availability of officials/operators responsible for enrolment.

Similarly, there are delays accepting and pushing the applications forward. Some of the respondents also talked about difficulty in procuring the required documentation and errors/issues found therein.

In terms of receiving money in their bank accounts through DBT, one of the most prominent issues is disruptions to payment schedule. Reasons for disruptions could be spelling errors in Aadhaar details, pending KYC, frozen or inactive bank accounts, mismatch in Aadhaar and bank account details, etc.

Aim

DBT was started on January 1, 2013. with the aim of reforming the government delivery system by re-engineering the existing process in welfare schemes for simpler and faster flow of information/funds and to ensure accurate targeting of the beneficiaries, de-duplication and reduction of fraud. First phase of DBT was initiated in 43 districts and later 78 more districts were added in 27 schemes pertaining to scholarships, women, child and labour welfare. DBT was further expanded across the country on December 12, 2014.

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