Modi government’s ‘digital’ surgical strike on middlemen and scams! Country’s record ₹5.14 lakh crore saved from DBT

According to the latest government data, delivering subsidies and welfare benefits through the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system helped the government prevent leakages (waste of funds) of Rs 83,064 crore in FY 2025. With this, the total savings of the Center through this route has reached Rs 5.14 lakh crore.

These savings have provided greater fiscal space to government finance managers to improve the quality of spending and provide additional welfare benefits to eligible beneficiaries without burdening the exchequer. To understand the scale of this savings, the total DBT-related savings between FY 2015 and FY 2025 is more than the Centre’s total expenditure of about Rs 4.5 lakh crore on the flagship ‘Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’ (now named G-RAM-G) over the last five years.

PDS and MNREGA at the forefront

1. In FY 2025 alone, the government saved over Rs 63,000 crore by eliminating duplicate, fake and non-existent ration cards. Further saving of Rs 16,829 crore was achieved by removing fake and duplicate MNREGA job cards. Additional savings were achieved by identifying and removing ineligible beneficiaries in scholarships and other social welfare programs.
2. Since coming to power in FY 2015, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has expanded the scope of DBT across all major welfare schemes. In FY 2026, DBT transfer across 328 schemes reached a record Rs 7.51 lakh crore. Since FY 2015, approximately Rs 51.5 lakh crore has been transferred directly to beneficiaries through cash transfer into bank accounts and benefits in the form of goods such as grains and fertilizers.
3. Out of the total savings of Rs 5.14 lakh crore from DBT, removal of 6.36 crore (63.6 million) fake ration cards under the Public Distribution System (PDS) resulted in a saving of Rs 3.13 lakh crore, which is about 61 per cent of the total savings.
4. Rs 74,888 crore saved by removing 1.32 crore (13.2 million) fake and duplicate MNREGA job cards. Similarly, removal of 40.9 million fake beneficiaries and 23.8 million unsubsidized LPG customers (including those who voluntarily opted out of subsidy) resulted in a total saving of Rs 74,031 crore by March 31, 2025.

PM-KISAN and Fertilizer

Additionally, the government saved Rs 22,106 crore by removing 21.17 million ineligible beneficiaries from the PM-KISAN scheme. Reduction in fertilizer sales to retailers by 158.06 lakh metric tonnes also resulted in savings of Rs 18,700 crore.

Adoption of DBT, timely release of funds and strict control on leakages have significantly improved the efficiency of government expenditure. This has led to a manifold increase in the capital expenditure of the Center in the post-pandemic period and has also helped in reducing the cost of borrowing.