Aadhaar helped disburse ₹831B via DBT: Assocham
new delhi — Biometric cards have facilitated disbursement of as much as 831.84 billion rupees to beneficiaries of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes without the notorious leakages of the past, industry body Assocham said on Sunday, citing its report on the matter.
“Real benefit of Jan Dhan and Aadhaar is finally reflected in the number of beneficiaries of government DBT schemes. The amount of funds transferred under DBT schemes between January 1 2013 and March 31, 2017 is 83,183.79 crore rupees [831.84 billion],” an AssochamThought Arbitrage report said on completion of three years of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) scheme for financial inclusion.
“The real achievement lies not in the amount disbursed, rather in the fact that these amounts were disbursed with minimum leakages or malpractices and that is important in terms of good governance,” the study said. DBT schemes have resulted in weeding out of 33.4 million duplicate consumers under PaHAL and a further 23.3 million ration cards being deleted, Assocham said. Total savings under DBT have been 495 billion rupees till December 2016.
Total subsidy paid under DBT in 2016-17 is 745 billion rupees. Cash subsidy paid under DBT is expected to increase to one trillion rupees subsequently, the industry chamber added.
The report’s publication follows the Supreme Court ruling earlier this week pronouncing privacy as fundamental right.
“The landmark verdict by the 9-judge Constitution Bench does provide a window for the Aadhaar-related government schemes. The judgement clearly stated that ‘the legitimate aim of the state would include, for instance, protecting national security... and preventing the dissipation of social welfare benefits,” Assocham Secretary General D.S. Rawat said in a statement here.