88% Wages Paid Through the Aadhaar-Based Payroll System Till May

NEW DELHI: By May 2023, according to data provided by the Ministry of Rural Development on Saturday, the Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) will have handled about 88% of wage payments.

According to the ministry, the central government has learned that numerous wage payment transactions are being rejected by destination bank branches because concerned programme officers are failing to update new account numbers, even though beneficiaries frequently change their bank account numbers without promptly providing the updated information. In order to address these problems, it has been determined that the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system's ABPS system is the most appropriate method of paying employees, guaranteeing beneficiaries receive their payments on time and without any problems.

“Once Aadhar is updated in the scheme database, the beneficiary need not update account numbers due to a change in location or change in the bank account number. Money will be transferred to the account number which is linked with the Aadhar number. In case of more than one account of the beneficiary, which is rare in the context of MGNREGA, a beneficiary has the choice to select the account," it said.

The success percentage of Aadhaar-enabled DBT is 99.55% or higher, according to data from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). In contrast, account-based payment success rates hover around 98%.

Since 2017, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has been utilizing ABPS. The Centre has chosen to make ABPS available to all plan beneficiaries due to the nearly universal availability of Aadhaar numbers among adults. Now that payments are only made through ABPS, a faster and safer transfer mechanism is guaranteed.

13.75 crore beneficiaries have linked their Aadhaar IDs successfully out of a total of 14.28 crore active beneficiaries. 12.17 crore of these seeded Aadhaar numbers have been authenticated, putting 77.81% of beneficiaries in the ABPS programme. Eighty-eight per cent of wages were paid through ABPS in May 2023 alone.

Over 98% of Indian adults, according to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), have an Aadhaar number. Those who need an Aadhaar number can get one by going to the relevant organisation or a nearby Aadhaar centre.

To achieve 100% ABPS coverage, state governments have been advised to plan camps and actively interact with recipients. The government has made it clear to all states that beneficiaries who come for work should be asked for their Aadhaar numbers, but work should not be refused based on this request.

If a beneficiary doesn't specifically want work, their eligibility for ABPS has no impact on the demand for it. Additionally, a worker's ineligibility for ABPS cannot be used as justification for deleting a job card.

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