Over Rs 4,350 cr transferred to ineligible beneficiaries under PM-KISAN scheme

New Delhi: More than Rs 4,350 crore has been transferred to ineligible beneficiaries under the PM-KISAN scheme and an advisory has been issued to states for getting refunds, the government said on Tuesday.

The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana (PM-KISAN), which was announced in February 2019, is a central scheme that aims at providing financial assistance to landholding farmer families, subject to certain exclusion criteria, to enable them to take care of expenses related to agriculture and allied activities as well as domestic needs.

Under the scheme, an amount of Rs 6,000 per year is transferred in three four-monthly installments of Rs 2,000 directly into the bank accounts of the farmers.

In reply to a written question in Lok Sabha, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, "an amount of more than Rs 4,352.49 crore which is 2 per cent of the total amount transferred to all the beneficiaries has been reported to have been transferred to ineligible beneficiaries".

He was replying to a query on "whether it is a fact that over Rs 2,500 crore of PM-KISAN scheme funds were transferred to ineligible beneficiaries".

Tomar said an SOP has been devised and circulated to states for getting refund from ineligible beneficiaries and return of funds to the government.

"Besides, a facility has been created on the web-portal through which any individual farmer can refund the money through NTRP system. So

far, an amount of Rs 296.67 crore has been recovered from ineligible beneficiaries," Tomar said.

The ministry informed that the eligibility of farmers

was initially based on their self-declaration and after verification of their details by State/UTs. Also only essential fields were made mandatory for registration.

Soon after successful initiation of transfer of benefits to farmers through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) System, rigorous checks and balances

were added using technology and by developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), modules, validation by other systems (UIDAI, Income Tax), among others. Further, integration with pensioners and employee record has also been enabled.