The efficiency myth of Aadhaar linking

The Union Government hastily passed a Bill to link voter IDs with Aadhaar cards. In a recent response, the Government said the “Ministry has been reporting DBT Mission on the estimated DBT savings under the scheme on the assumption that 10% of the wages in the year could be saved.” In an earlier response, it had said: “Savings are in terms of increasing the efficiency and reducing the delay in payments etc.” The savings due to Aadhaar, therefore, appear to be an “assumption” while the other claims are also on shaky grounds. This is perhaps the first large sample empirical evidence demonstrating that the Government’s claim of Aadhaar having “reduced payment delays” is unfounded. However, the most common reason for payment failures through the APBS is enigmatically called “Inactive Aadhaar.” This has nothing to do with an individual’s Aadhaar being inactive but happens when there is a software mapping failure with the centralised National Payments Corporation of India, the clearing house for APBS. Moreover, there are several cases of misdirected payments in APBS when the Aadhaar number of one person gets linked to somebody else’s bank account so her money gets credited to somebody else’s account.