The direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme, launched by the Manmohan Singh government from January 2013 on a pilot basis for cooking gas and the national job guarantee schemes, and has gone onto become the world’s largest cash transfer scheme by August 2015, has cumulatively helped the Centre save around Rs 3.25 trillion while the amount of cash transferred had reached close to Rs 7 trillion.
According to the data collated by RBI analysts and put out in the February 2025 bulletin, from a modest coverage of 28 schemes in fiscal 2014 (the scheme was launched by the late prime minister Singh on January 1,2013, the DBT covers as many as 323 schemes across 54 Union ministries as of fiscal 2025.
The number of beneficiaries as well as the funds transferred under various schemes have also risen notably over time touching close to 7 trillion in fiscal 2023 (peaked) impacting as many as 180 crore people, while the savings that the government earned is upwards of Rs 3.25 trillion.
The DBT was launched on a pilot basis in select districts on January 1, 2013, initially covering a few schemes. In 2013 itself, the Centre introduced the DBT for LPG subsidy payments, followed by major schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the National Social Assistance Programme, Public Distribution System, and student scholarship schemes. Come August 2015, it became the world’s largest cash transfer programme providing direct benefits to around 14 crore households.
Similarly, during the Covid pandemic, DBT played a very significant role when the speed and scale of cash transfers was unprecedented and this had the World Bank recommending the DBT for adoption by other countries for ensuring disaster resilience.
The objective of the scheme was to reduce the massive leakages (Rajiv Gandhi in 1983 had said just 15 paise of the allotted Re 1 reached the beneficiary when it came to ration subsidies) and to ensure that intended beneficiaries receive timely transfers at minimal cost by transferring the subsidy amounts directly to the bank accounts of verified beneficiaries, thereby minimising the role of intermediaries in funds disbursal.
Listing out the benefits of the scheme, the analysts said DBT has aided the department of fertilisers to reduce fertiliser sale to retailers by 158.1 lakh tonnes. Similarly, in case of the national jobs guarantee scheme, DBI has eliminated 7.1 lakh fake job cards. Likewise, channelling LPG subsidy payment through DBT has resulted in elimination of 4.15 crore duplicate, fake, or inactive LPG connections.