Weeding out fake welfare scheme beneficiaries to help save ₹18K cr

The Centre expects to save ₹18,000 crore in the current fiscal by identifying and removing fake welfare beneficiaries across schemes. Together with states, the Centre has launched a verification drive for fertiliser subsidy beneficiaries, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi recipients and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) workers.

A large number of duplicate or fake beneficiaries of these schemes have already been blocked.

"We will be able to save at least ₹18,000 crore in this fiscal just on the account of weeding out fake or duplicate beneficiaries under various schemes," a senior official told ET.


So far about 17.1 million duplicate or ineligible farmers receiving PM Kisan benefits have been removed from the database.

"In last six months states and the Centre are jointly working on the beneficiary list, removing duplicate or fake beneficiaries under PM Kishan, so that the benefit should reach the right person," the official said.

The PM Kisan scheme alone will help in saving ₹9,000 crore in the current fiscal.

Under the PM Kisan scheme, smaller farmers get an annual support of ₹6,000 per year from the Centre directly in their bank account in three tranches of ₹2,000 each. Since its launch in February 2019, ₹2.40 lakh crore has been disbursed through the scheme to 11.5 crore farmers. The government has budgeted ₹60,000 crore for PM Kisan scheme for the 2023-24 financial year (FY24).

In a separate drive, fertiliser squads have been formed to check the diversion of subsidised agriculture fertilisers for industrial use.

The squad has registered about 30 first information reports after seizing 80,000 agrochemical bags and made several arrests under the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies Act. The Centre provides urea at a highly subsidised rate of ₹266 per bag (of 45 kg) to farmers. It has to bear a subsidy of about ₹2,500 per bag.

The government has earmarked ₹1.75 lakh crore for fertiliser subsidy in FY24 Budget. The Centre has indicated that India's fertiliser subsidy bill is likely to overshoot the budgeted amount by ₹40,000 crore to ₹2.25 lakh crore in FY24.

In the case of MGNREGA, the Centre had last year initiated a drive to plug in leakages by deleting almost 3.3 million duplicate or fake job cards. The Centre expects to save about ₹4,000 crore.

The FY24 Budget allocated only ₹60,000 crore for MGNREGA, 18% lower than the previous year's Budget allocation.