PAC: 89K ineligible farmers got Rs 121 cr under PM-KISAN scheme in Haryana

Tribune News Service

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Chandigarh, February 29

As many as 89,345 ineligible farmers had received Rs 121.42 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme in Haryana, revealed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Haryana Legislative Assembly.

Recovery of money

As per an office memorandum issued by the Centre in 2020, on the Standard Operating Procedure for a refund, the state government will recover the money from that individual. Persons who paid tax in the last assessment year are not eligible for benefits under the scheme

The report of the committee was tabled before the Legislative Assembly yesterday. The committee had taken up a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the disbursement of benefits under PM-KISAN to ineligible farmers, where the state’s Agriculture Department replied that it identified 26,667 ineligible farmers who had received Rs 40.62 crore. In addition, 62,678 income tax-paying farmers had received Rs 80.82 crore.

As per an office memorandum issued by the Centre in 2020, on the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for a refund, the state government will recover the money from that individual. Persons who paid tax in the last assessment year are not eligible for benefits under the scheme.

The department had initially submitted before the committee that just Rs 2.50 crore had been recovered from 2,583 farmers but later added that Rs 6.50 crore more had also been recovered.

“The Government of India has informed the Agriculture Department, Haryana, that the income tax payee farmer’s data is to be scrutinised at their level (GoI). It is the possibility that after the scrutiny of data at GoI level, the number of income tax payee farmers may be reduced. Due to this reason, the module of recovery on PM-KISAN portal has been frozen by the Government of India from a long time & this Department cannot change this data,” submitted the Agriculture Department before the committee.

The committee has desired that the recovery from the income tax payees and the ineligible beneficiaries be expedited, said the report.

The PM-KISAN scheme was launched in 2019 and aims to provide income support and risk mitigation for farmers. It has 100 per cent GoI funding, operated under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode. Income support of Rs 6,000 per annum is provided to all eligible farmers’ families across the country with specified exclusions, in three equal instalments of Rs 2,000 each every four months.

Since the scheme’s launch, the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, Haryana, has registered 20.24 lakh farmers on the web portal of the scheme, of which 19.88 lakh have been verified. As of October 12, 2023, 18.87 lakh farmers are eligible under the scheme. From December 2018 to till date, the eligible farmers have received Rs 4,645.15 crore through 14 instalments of the scheme, submitted the department.

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