88% of NREGA wage payments made through ABPS till May: Govt

In May 2023, about 88 % of the wage payments under the NREGA scheme were made through the Aadhaar-Based Payment Bridge system (ABPS), the ministry of rural development said in a statement on June 3, 2023. Under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, the ABPS has been in use since 2017. However, the government has made it mandatory to switch to the ABPS by June 30, 2023.

After almost universal availability of Aadhaar numbers to every adult population, now the government has decided to extend the ABPS for beneficiaries under the scheme. The payment will land through the ABPS only to the account associated with ABPS, which means that it is a safer and faster way of payment transfer.

Making a case for Aadhaar-enabled payments under the scheme, the ministry said that once Aadhaar was updated in the scheme database, a beneficiary did not need to update account numbers due to change in location or change in bank account number. “The money will be transferred to the account number which is linked with the Aadhaar number. In case of more than one account of the beneficiary, which is rare in the context of MGNREGA, the beneficiary has the choice to select the account,” it said.

“It has been brought to the notice of the Central government that in many cases several transactions of wage payment are being rejected due to frequent changes in bank account numbers by the beneficiary and non-upload of the new account number by the programme officer concerned. In consultation with different stakeholders, it is found that to avoid such rejections, the ABPS is the best route for making wage payment through DBT. It will help the beneficiaries in getting their wage payment on time,” the ministry said in an official statement.

NPCI data show that there is a higher success percentage to the extent of 99.55% or above where Aadhaar is enabled for direct benefits transfer DBT. In case of account-based payment such success is about 98%.

According to the UIDAI, more than 98% of the adult population in India has Aadhaar. Out of the total 14.28 crore active beneficiaries under the NREGA, Aadhaar has been seeded for 13.75 crore. Against these seeded Aadhaar, a total 12.17 crore Aadhaars have been authenticated and 77.81% are now already eligible for ABPS.

“States have been requested to organize camps and follow up with beneficiaries to achieve 100% ABPS. The ministry has made it clear to all the states that the beneficiary who comes for work should be requested to provide the Aadhaar number, but will not be refused work on this basis. If a beneficiary does not demand work, in such a case her/his status about eligibility for ABPS does not affect the demand for work,” the ministry said.

NREGA job cards cannot be deleted because a worker is not eligible for ABPS, it adds.

“Aadhaar-based payment system is a route through which the payment is getting credited in the account of beneficiaries. There are well-defined steps adopted in this system, and the role of beneficiaries, field functionaries and all other stakeholders is clearly defined. The ABPS is helping genuine beneficiaries get their due payment and is instrumental in curbing corruption by weeding out fake beneficiaries. The Mahatma Gandhi NREGS has not adopted Aadhaar-enabled payment, but has opted for the Aadhaar-based payment bridge system, the ministry clarified.