Government Saves Around Rs 28,700 Crore Through DBT In First Nine Months Of The FY20

In a major success for the Government of India, in the first nine months of April-December of the ongoing financial year 2019-20, it has saved around Rs 28,700 crore through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mechanism, reports Hindu Businessline.

The maximum amount of savings was made in the Public Distribution System (PDS) under which poor and very poor persons receive food grains at subsidised rates. The amounts saved in PDS due to the DBT stood at Rs 19,200 crore.

It should be noted that since the implementation of the DBT mechanism, the plugging of leakages in the PDS system alone has saved around Rs 67,000 crore as the government, through the use of information technology and other measures, has identified and deleted 2.98 crore duplicate, fake or non-existent ration cards.

Meanwhile, a major sum of Rs 6,000 crore has also been saved in the ongoing fiscal by the robust implementation of the DBT mechanism in the LPG distribution. The overall savings from LPG since inception of cashless subsidy transfer scheme has been to the tune of Rs 65,600 crore.

This has been achieved as the government has successfully weeded out 4.54 crore duplicate, fake, non-existing or inactive LPG connections.

Similarly, over Rs 3,300 crore were also saved by implementing the DBT mechanism in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (MGNREGA), with overall savings till December 2019 touching over Rs 24,000 crore.