BackAadhaar can save Rs30,000 crore of taxpayers’ money: Nilekani
Nilekani also says measures like the GST will help improve the ease and speed of doing business
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New Delhi: Nandan Nilekani, the Congress party’s Lok Sabha candidate from Bangalore South, told an industry gathering on Friday India could save as much as Rs30,000 crore of taxpayers’ money if the Aadhaar unique identification number is used for distributing government subsidies.
Nilekani, who until recently was chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), said India currently spends Rs300,000 crore on subsidy schemes, and the Aadhaar platform can bring about 10% savings through efficiency gains and plugging of leakages.
The Aadhaar scheme has become a major campaign issue in the high-profile Bangalore South constituency with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calling for its withdrawal claiming it is too expensive.
Ananth Kumar, the BJP candidate fighting Nilekani, has claimed that the project cost of Aadhaar is as high as Rs50,000 crore, prompting Nilekani to write to the Election Commission complaining of baseless allegations.
Aadhaar numbers have been issued to nearly 600 million people so far, but the programme has run into rough weather with the Supreme Court directing the government to withdraw all orders making the Aadhaar number mandatory. The government has also put its direct benefit transfer scheme for cooking gas cylinders, which was to have been linked to Aadhaar numbers, on hold.
In his address, Nilekani also said measures like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) would help improve the ease and speed of doing business.
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