In a significant ramp-up of the direct benefit transfer programme, the finance ministry has said electronic transfers must be made to beneficiaries of all schemes where that involve any kind of cash benefits.
Accordingly, all ministries have been asked to use DBT for all Central sector as well as Centrally sponsored schemes from April.
The move would significantly widen the scope of the two-year old DBT that was launched in from January 2013 but is confined to just 28 schemes involving cash transfers for scholarships and pensions. The Centre has now also begun to roll out modified DBTL or Pahal for transfer of cooking gas subsidy directly into beneficiaries accounts.
“For greater and universal impact on efficiency in delivery of benefits, their timeliness, along with accurately targeting of the intended beneficiaries, it is imperative that DBT may be extended beyond the transfers to the Centre directly to individuals to all schemes or projects that have any component of cash benefits transfer to individual beneficiaries, from levels other than Central…from state or district of sub-district level or government or non-government agencies,” the department of expenditure has said in a missive to all government ministries.
In the case of Central sector schemes, the finance ministry has asked all departments to transfer funds electronically to all individuals and institutions. It has directed that a digitised list of all beneficiaries must be made and seeded with Aadhaar numbers by June 30. “E-transfer of funds will start in all (central) schemes not later than April, 2015,” the ministry has stressed.
Similarly, for all CSS schemes, the Central ministry will transfer funds to the state governments and work with states to transfer the cash component of each scheme to beneficiaries electronically.
For these schemes, ministries have to prepare a digitised list of beneficiaries by 30 March 2015 that should be seeded with 100 per cent Aadhaar numbers by June 30.
Cash transfer would be made by Public Financial Management Systems of the Controller General of Accounts or NEFT, the finance ministry said.