August 25, 2023: The government has made Aadhaar-based payment system (ABPS) mandatory to pay wages to workers enrolled under its flagship National Employment Guarantee Scheme Act (NREGA), say media reports, citing highly placed sources. The new rule comes into effect from September 1, 2023.
The government had earlier directed state governments to make all payments to the NREGA beneficiaries through the ABPS from February 1, 2023. It then extended this deadline to March 31, and subsequently to June 2023. Due to requests made by several states, the rural development ministry decided that wage payment of NREGA beneficiaries be made using either the ABPS or NACH (National Automated Clearing House) mode, depending upon the status of ABPS of a beneficiary till August 31, 2023. However, the rural development ministry has now decided against extending this deadline beyond August 31, 2023, the reports say.
This leaves states with only a few days to complete the process of putting the ABPS in place. Data available on the NREGA website show 19.4% (2.77 crore) active NREGA workers are yet to be linked to the ABPS.
The government has also made attendance mandatory through the National Mobile Monitoring System (NMMS) app from January 1, 2023.
What is ABPS? How does it work?
According to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), ABPS is “a unique payment system which uses Aadhaar number as a central key for electronically channelising government subsidies and benefits in the Aadhaar-Enabled Bank Accounts (AEBA) of the beneficiaries”.
A NREGA job Card holder must link his bank account with Aadhaar for the system to work. The account must also be connected to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) mapper for the NREGA worker to receive wages on time.
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