Modi government has saved a huge amount of public money through direct transfer of subsidy money to the accounts of the beneficiaries. The savings through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of welfare scheme and subsidy money amounts to 1.1 lakh crore rupees, which is almost 0.6 percent of country’s GDP or 5 percent of total central government spending. As many as 8 crore fake beneficiaries were weeded out from various schemes since the implementation of DBT. The total money saved through DBT till December 31, 2019, is 1, 09,983 crore rupees which is almost 20,000 crore rupees more than 90,000 rupees saved till the end of the fiscal year 2019. This means in the first 9 months of this fiscal year, the Modi government has saved 20,000 crore rupees.
“One-sixth of the total payout through DBT was saved which would otherwise have gone down the drain to non-existent beneficiaries. This figure will be part of the BJP’s campaign pitch in 2019 elections to show how a corruption-free government has saved public money,” said a government official. The number of fake beneficiaries purged out is almost equal to the population of Britain.
Speaking at the 15th Pravasi Bhartiya Divas (PBD) Convention, the Prime Minister took a jibe at Congress party on the issue of corruption during the Congress regime. “A former Prime Minister said if one rupee is sent from Delhi, only 15 paisa reaches the village. Unfortunately, even in its rule later for 10-15 years, that party (Congress) did nothing to stop this loot or plug the leakages – they knew of the disease but did nothing to cure the disease as they do not have the intention to do it,” said PM.
As the supreme verdict on Aadhaar has allowed the unique identity to be used for Direct Benefit Transfer, the government could use Aadhaar identity for many more schemes. Universal Basic Income (UBI) is being debated among policy circles of the country and a fixed amount of income in the bank accounts of the poor through DBT for the purpose of welfare. As of now, the government uses DBT for 465 schemes which range from LPG subsidy to college scholarships. There are talks that Direct Benefit Transfer could also be used for direct transfer of compensation to farmer’s account instead of using Minimum Support Price (MSP).
The Modi government has saved leakage of almost 90,000 crore rupees by using DBT till March 2018. In 2016-17 alone, the government saved plugging leakage worth 32, 984 crore rupees. DBT also made the transfer of MGNREGA benefits more transparent and removed the middle man. Earlier the gram pradhans used to force the beneficiaries to do household work or give them some agricultural work in their own land. Some jobs were so unproductive that the workers had to dig a pond and then refill it because they had no actual work to do, and the government had promised to give a job of at least 100 days to them. DBT has been hugely beneficial for the government to control the leakage in the delivery of public services. Earlier, the leaders used to say that if 100 rupees is spent on welfare, only 10 percent of that reaches to people. By using DBT, the Modi government could transfer 100 rupees directly to the beneficiaries’ accounts.