Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme used in various subsidy programmes, has helped the Centre in saving Rs 58,000 crore, according to Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The Central Government is making optimum use of digital technology to innovate ways to benefit the poor and underprivileged.
“We opened Jan Dhan accounts for poor and underprivileged. We linked that to Aadhaar and mobile phones and we started sending gas subsidy, ration subsidy, kerosene subsidy and food subsidy directly to the bank account. We have saved Rs. 58,000 crore which used to be pocketed by middlemen,” said Prasad.
“This Rs. 58,000 crore money is not private money it is tax payer’s money which required to be saved and digital governance is doing that,” he added.
Explaining the success quotient of DBT initiative, the minister said that government has been able to put a check on three crore fake gas connections and has revoked 2.7 fake ration cards.
“The idea we set for ourselves when we went for digital revolution is, that we want to create technology which is inclusive and at the same time affordable and dependable,” he added.
The minister further explained that the linking of various social schemes proved to be advantageous for the underprivileged.
