During the existing lockdown period, between March 24 – April 17, over Rs 36,659 crore has been transferred using Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) through Public Financial Management System (PFMS) in 16.01 crore beneficiaries’ bank accounts by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) office, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement on Sunday.
The amount transferred included Rs 27,442 crore under centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) and central sector (CS) schemes and another Rs 9,717 crore from the state governments. In terms of beneficiaries, 11.42 benefitted under CSS/CS during the said lockdown period, the ministry said
Moreover, Rs 500 each was credited in 19.86 crore women Jan Dhan account holders till April 13 under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojna through DBT digital payment infrastructure. This has led to the disbursement of Rs 9,930 crores, as per data from the Department of Financial Services.
On March 26, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a relief package of Rs 1.70 lakh crore under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana for the poor impacted due to the lockdown. Direct Benefit Transfer as a reform initiative was launched, by the government, in the delivery process using technology to transfer the amount into the bank or postal accounts of beneficiaries as well as in-kind transfers from the government to individual beneficiaries.
