Direct Benefit Transfer Sees 700 Crore Transactions Last Fiscal, 88% Jump in Payouts Over 3 Years

The amount of money sent under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme nearly doubled in the last financial year since 2019-20, in less than three years, according to details in News18. It comes amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on Tuesday that 3 crore rupees have been saved from falling into the wrong hands due to DBT since 2015.

More than Rs 7.16 crore has been transferred at around Rs 700 crore in 2022-23 under DBT. This was higher than the Rs 3.81 crore transferred under DBT in 2019-20 at Rs 438 crore, according to the data. This represents an increase of approximately 88% in DBT payments over three years. DBT remittances in 2021-22 were Rs 6.3 crore, showing a growth of nearly 14% in the last financial year.

Prime Minister Modi told NDA Partners on Tuesday that nearly Rs 30,000 crore has been sent to people’s accounts through DBT without any leakage or corruption. He added that 10 crore fictitious recipients, who had no proof of birth and were still receiving the money, had been removed from the records.

Why the DBT leap?

The center has brought in an increasing number of schemes under DBT to reduce leakages and money falling into the wrong hands. In 2022-23, the Center transferred Public Distribution System (PDS) quotas of Rs. 1.63 crores to the poor in the country and the figure reached Rs. 2.17 crores for the period 2021-22. This was largely due to the free quota system being run by the Center – PM Anna Yojana – during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the last financial year, the largest offset was under DBT of fertilizer subsidies, which rose from Rs 1.23 lakh crore in 2021-22 to Rs 2.06 lakh crore in 2022-23. In comparison to this, DBT payments under PDS in 2019-20 were at Rs 0.8 crore and under Fertilizer at Rs 0.46 crore. At present, 310 central government schemes fall under the scope of DBT.