Govt adopts paisa instead of rupee for DBT

Now the government is accused of adopting the Congress slogan of Aapka Paisa Apka Haath in its direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme which seeks the director transfer of money into bank accounts of beneficiaries. The money is being transferred in terms of paisa instead of rupees. Paisa is the lowest denominator of the Indian currency. It means if government transfers Rs 500 in a beneficiary's account, the DBT system will display it as 600000 paisa.

The Planning Commission has also issued a direction to all central government ministries asking them to send all payment advice files with details of the Aadhaar number, scheme reference number and amount in paisa. It is learnt that money transfer in paisa terms was requirement of the digital system so that uniformity could be maintained. But the Planning Commission directive has certainly added to the workloads of these ministries.

The government had launched DBT in 7 central government schemes in 20 districts from January 1 whereas another 11 districts have been added from February 1. The government has plans to bring most of the Central government schemes on the DBT system by end of 2013.