The amount of money sent under the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme has almost doubled in the last financial year since 2019-20, in less than three years, as per details with News18. This comes amidst Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday saying that Rs 3 lakh crore had been saved from going into the wrong hands due to DBT since 2015.
Over Rs 7.16 lakh crore was transferred in nearly 700 crore transactions in 2022-23 under DBT. This was up from Rs 3.81 lakh crore transferred under DBT in 2019-20 in 438 crore transactions, data shows. This amounts to an almost 88% increase in DBT payouts over three years. The amount of DBT transfers in the 2021-22 stood at Rs 6.3 lakh crore, showing a growth of nearly 14% in the last financial year.
PM Modi told NDA partners on Tuesday that nearly Rs 30 lakh crore had been sent into people’s accounts through DBT without any leakage or corruption. He added that 10 crore fake beneficiaries, who had no proof of birth and were yet receiving money, have been removed from the records.
Why the DBT Jump?
The Centre has brought increasing number of schemes under DBT to cut down on leakages and the money falling into wrong hands. In 2022-23, the Centre transferred Public Distribution System (PDS) ration worth Rs 1.63 lakh crore to poor people in the country and the figure stood at Rs 2.17 lakh crore for 2021-22. This was in a big way due to the free ration scheme run by the Centre — PM Anna Yojana — during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the last financial year, the biggest payout under DBT was for fertiliser subsidy, which rose from Rs 1.23 lakh crore in 2021-22 to Rs 2.06 lakh crore in 2022-23. Compared to this, the DBT payout under PDS in 2019-20 had stood at Rs 0.8 lakh crore and under fertiliser at Rs 0.46 lakh crore. At present, 310 Central government schemes fall under DBT’s ambit.
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