Over 30 crore people were benefitted through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) in 2015-16 as the government dispersed almost Rs 61,000 to MNREGA and PAHAL (for LPG) beneficiaries.

The seeding of official databases with Aadhaar numbers has been major step in streamlining the process of identification of beneficiaries to be covered under DBT scheme. This has resulted in weeding out of duplicate beneficiaries which led to significant savings across welfare schemes.

Over 1.6 crore bogus ration cards have been deleted, resulting in savings of about Rs 10,000 crore. Similarly, 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries were weeded out in the PAHAL scheme, resulting in savings of over Rs 14,000 crore in 2014-15 alone. Under MGNREGA, a saving of Rs 3000 crore (roughly 10 percent) has been estimated in 2015-16. Several states/union territories too have achieved significant savings through DBT.

The information was provided in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to review the progress of Aadhaar and DBT programmes.

Over Rs 25,000 crore in MGNREGA, and over Rs 21,000 crore in PAHAL (for LPG) have been spent on targeted beneficiaries through DBT.
Emphasis was being lad on providing benefits in time by creating an error-free platform.

Prime minister has asked the officials to test their systems carefully before implementing them on a large scale.

More so, steps have been taken towards a unique identifier for NGOs. Over 71,000 NGOs are now registered with the NGO Darpan portal maintained by NITI Aayog.