In a significant expansion of the direct benefit transfer scheme, the Centre is working to expand it to include all State government schemes as well.
“All States are on board and working with us. State government schemes should come within the ambit of DBT over the next few months,” said a senior official.
An estimated 3,000 schemes of State governments will then come under DBT, covering 40,000 beneficiaries and ₹3-lakh crore of funds.
Payments for all government benefits, whether at the State, Central or even local level, would then be done by cash transfers directly deposited into the beneficiaries’ bank accounts. In fact, government officials say that with the inclusion of State schemes, an estimated ₹6-lakh crore of government benefits would be paid through DBT.
At present, over 370 schemes of 55 Central ministries are part of the DBT platform, with over 76.38 crore beneficiaries.
Payments of over ₹39,623 crore for Central and Centrally-Sponsored Schemes have been done through cash transfers in the current fiscal, while a cumulative ₹2.22-lakh crore have been transferred through DBT.
States have already been working with the Centre to set up DBT cells in their own regions. “With most Central and CSS schemes already on DBT, on-boarding State schemes is the next logical step,” said the official.
At a meeting of the Inter-State Council last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged States to join the cash transfer platform and use Aadhaar linkages to weed out fake beneficiaries.
Officials have said that while DBT for welfare schemes can continue, authentication of the beneficiary may be difficult without Aadhaar. The government is working to improve data protection and privacy.
Meanwhile, to improve the efficacy of fund transfers, the government plans to on-board DBT on its Public Financial Management System, a web-based online transaction system for e-payments and fund management.