'All welfare schemes will soon be under direct benefit transfer'

The government is likely to bring all welfare and subsidy schemes under Aadhar-based Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme soon.

More than 500 schemes of 63 ministries have been identified to be implemented through DBT mode as of now but all of them will be transferred to this platform, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said.

The money will need to be credited to the DBT Bharat portal for the purpose by the ministries along with the beneficiaries’ Aadhaar number to take the benefit, he said.
The minister recently said that till the end of last month only 90 welfare and subsidy schemes were being reported on DBT Bharat Portal.

At present, Aadhaar is being used as a unique identifier for accurate targeting of intended beneficiaries. In case the beneficiary does not possess Aadhaar or Aadhaar Enrolment ID, the beneficiary is allowed to avail subsidy benefits using alternate prescribed documents.

Meghwal said the step is being planned after the successful delivery of LPG cooking gas through DBT. He said currently only 90 schemes are linked to the DBT Bharat portal.

The finance ministry has been pushing all the ministries to shift to DBT Bharat portal to check pilferage of subsidies to the poor. A DBT mission group in the ministry recently consucted a review of all existing welfare schemes and found that over 500 schemes could move to the portal now and rest in successive months.

 Food, fertiliser and fuel subsidies will be eventually provided through DBT, the minister said.