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According to the report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the countries that implemented Aadhaar-linked digital payment and biometric verification systems have cut down welfare fraud cases by around 12.7 per cent, thus establishing a new standard in the world for public welfare integrity.

Every year over $21 trillion in public payments are being distributed by governments in various regions, however, $3 trillion of this amount is lost to fraud, error, and inefficiency.

In India, the last mile delivery of food rations, social pensions, LPG subsidies, fertilizer support, and rural employment wages has been reinforced through biometric authentication and direct digital transfers which has in turn reduced the reliance on intermediaries and administrative costs, as per the report.

The World Bank's forecasts imply that India would be able to cut down on fraudulent claims and the other costs associated with them to the tune of $10 billion a year if it uses Aadhaar-enabled systems, it highlighted.

Aadhaar has decreased the costs involved in managing programs and prevented the misuse and wastage of funds in some of the biggest social programs throughout the world. Data from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan indicated better delivery without the exclusion of authentic beneficiaries, as pointed out by the report.

To a large extent, AI-assisted integrity solutions can make welfare programs leak-proof, win more trust in the government, and guarantee that public funds have the greatest effect on the people,” opined Mario Gonsalves, the BCG Public Sector Practice India Leader.

The Government has given more than Rs 3.7 lakh crores directly into the savings accounts of around 11 crore farmer families in the country under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana.

The coupling of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) with the digital payments and direct benefit transfer (DBT) has made sure that the subsidies and welfare benefits are delivered to the people directly thus cutting down the chances of leakages and overlapping.

The introduction of digital tools like e-invoicing, e-way bills and faceless assessments for revenue generation has along with others increased the tax base and curbed evasion, as reported by IANS.

The government did not increase tax rates but such measures have intensified revenue flows and thus contributed to the improvement of the fiscal balance.