)
The government's ambitious Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme, once billed a game-changer, might be losing favour with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) as a key plank for the 2014 general elections.
The scheme's report card after six months of launch seems to present the reason. Of the 1.66 million beneficiaries aimed to be covered in 43 districts in the first phase, it has been able to reach just about a fourth. Besides, almost half of the 25 schemes on the DBT platform have yet to see a transaction via the Aadhaar-based payment bridge (APB).
"There's realisation in the government that it oversold the scheme quickly, while underestimating the complexity involved," a Cabinet minister closely involved in the project candidly admitted. A close look reveals that New Delhi, in its attempt to overhaul the country's age-old leaky delivery mechanism through which almost Rs 3 lakh crore of government welfare payments pass annually, has managed to only scratch the surface. According to official sources, there have been only 500,000-550,000 transactions using the Aadhaar platform, involving Rs 115-120 crore till mid-July.
According to a top government official directly involved with the project, only 400,000 beneficiaries might have been covered so far. Even as the government on July 1 flagged off Phase-II of the project, mapping a fifth of the country, the estimates for the total number of people being targeted by the scheme are still not available.
The administrative machinery of the entire country seems to be working on a war footing to roll out DBT. But, given the high level of complexity and slow momentum, the government might run out of time before it could boast the scheme's positive impact on a sizeable chunk of the population.
"A lot of hard work is needed at the ground level," the minister said, adding the scheme was time consuming and required unprecedented coordination but a solid case was emerging for transfer of payments directly to Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of people. This, according to him is only affirmed by the success stories, such as the one involving cooking gas subsidy. Experts, however, argue it is the government that stands to gain more than people in the case of LPG. That's because direct transfer would weed out fakes and ghosts in its subsidy-transfer mechanism.
DBT for LPG subsidy transfer might have yielded encouraging results so far. But the project involving other schemes remains mired in various technological, banking and administrative complexities, besides Centre-state and inter-departmental coordination issues.
Sample this: Of the 1.6 million targeted beneficiaries in Phase-I, almost a million were from Andhra Pradesh, which is still not on board DBT, barring a few districts like East Godavari. "The state says it has its own electronic welfare delivery systems that are working quite well," said a government official in the know of the matter. Talks have been initiated to bring the state on board. This will "significantly shore up the numbers".
A Congress leader explained: "The reality has gradually begun to sink in that DBT is a non-starter. The insurmountable problem of bank linkages, etc, seems to have eclipsed the perceptible benefits of the scheme." Therefore, the party has now escalated the Food Bill, as the Congress expects to be seen as the harbinger of the welfare scheme - even without implementation, as that falls in the realm of states.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, however, told Business Standard that there were no misgivings about the complexity of the project within the government from the very start. "We are all very realistic about it," he said.
"It is a complete re-engineering of the entire system. That takes time," added Ramesh, who is soon going to flag off migration of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and pension payments across seven districts in Andhra Pradesh, a state he represents in the Rajya Sabha.
MUCH HYPED?
Limited Phase-I reach...
- Target: 1.66 million beneficiaries across 43 districts
- Actual: Only about a fourth of the target covered
- Zero transaction seen via Aadhaar-based payment bridge (APB) in almost half of the 25 govt welfare schemes (17 scholarship-based) on the DBT platform
- 500,000-550,000: Transactions on the Aadhaar platform
- Rs 115-120 crore: Amount transacted till mid-July
... Phase-II picture hazy...
- Target: Expanding coverage to 120 districts, mapping a fifth of the country in second phase, launched on July 1
- No clarity yet on the number of beneficiaries
... But LPG scheme not out of gas
- 2.3 million: Transactions within six weeks of the rollout of DBT for cooking gas in 20 districts
- Rs 90 crore: Amount transacted in LPG subsidy transfers
