The Government will launch the payout of direct cash subsidy to people through the Aadhaar-based system in 51 districts of the country from January 1, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said today.
He said the Government intends to complete the rollout of direct cash transfer through the Aadhaar-based system throughout the country by the end of 2013. This will, among other things, facilitate the payout of direct cash subsidy to the targeted beneficiaries.
“We want the rollout (of Aadhaar-based subsidy transfer) to be completed by the end of 2013,” he said at the Bancon conference here.
The Finance Minister noted that the Government spends “thousands and thousands of crores of rupees” on pension and various subsidies.
“We are going to launch the ambitious programme of payout of direct cash subsidy to people through the Aadhaar system in 51 districts across 15 states,” he said.
Chidambaram said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take up a meeting of the cash transfer committee on Monday in the run-up to the implementation of the scheme from the beginning of next year.
Stating that the economy is in a slowdown mode, he said the economic growth is expected to be 5.5 per cent in the second quarter.
“For us 8 per cent growth is not an aspiration. We must aspire for over 8 per cent growth,” he said.