The government proposes to roll out direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for food and kerosene in three union territories of Chandigarh, Puducherry and Dadra and Nagar Haveli from September, under which every family will get about Rs 500-700 per month.
"We will launch the cash transfer scheme for food and kerosene subsides in three union territories (Chandigarh, Puducherry and Dadra and Nagar Haveli from September.
"Under the programme, each family will get a monthly subsidy of about Rs 500-700, which would be linked to a state-set procurement price of grains and fuel," said Peeyush Kumar, Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry, looking after the DBT scheme.
Kumar further said that the Centre has asked states to digitise Public Distribution Scheme (PDS) data by December-end.
Under the DBT scheme, government subsidies are directly transferred into the bank accounts of beneficiaries. So far, DBT has been extended to over 13 crore people.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reviewed the progress on the DBT front.
The government says it has managed to save pilferage of crores of rupees in LPG subsidy following transfer of benefit through DBT mechanism.
Meanwhile, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian also today said that sales of subsidised LPG cylinders under the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme (DBT) have come down by about 25 per cent as most "ghost beneficiaries" have been eliminated.
