Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Saturday, commended the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) for its pivotal role in streamlining Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT), ensuring welfare payments reach beneficiaries directly without intermediaries. Speaking at the 49th Civil Accounts Day celebrations, the minister revealed that out of 1,200 central and state government schemes, 1,100 are now under the DBT framework.
“Everything is routed via direct payment—no middlemen, no unborn children receiving allowances. Every beneficiary has a biometric-verified account into which the money flows directly. That’s the power of DBT, supported by PFMS,” Sitharaman stated.
The Finance Minister highlighted that PFMS currently serves 60 crore beneficiaries, making it the largest system of its kind globally. This end-to-end digital platform has made government financial transactions faster, more transparent, and far more accountable, eliminating leakages and ensuring funds reach their intended recipients.
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Sitharaman further underscored how PFMS integrates with over 250 external platforms, including the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), GST Network (GSTN), PM Kisan, and Tax Information Network (TIN 2.0). This seamless linkage enhances efficiency and enables real-time fund tracking. “By integrating with these systems, we are strengthening the very spirit of cooperative federalism,” she added.
The system’s reach spans across states, working with 31 state treasuries and over 40 lakh programme-implementing agencies. This ensures a unified financial management structure across both central and state governments, creating a standardised mechanism for financial reporting.
“When we talk about PFMS integrating systems, what better example can there be of cooperative federalism? All 31 state treasuries and over 40 lakh implementing agencies are plugged into PFMS. Consider the scale—this is a country with over 140 crore people, the world’s largest democracy, and a federal structure with provincial governments, yet financial reporting is integrated through PFMS,” the Finance Minister emphasised.
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PFMS has also established deep linkages with over 650 banks and financial institutions, including public and private sector banks, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), creating what Sitharaman described as a “network of networks.” This ensures smooth fund flow and enhanced fiscal discipline.
Highlighting the platform’s scale, Sitharaman noted that PFMS handles one crore financial transactions daily, positioning it among the largest financial management systems globally. The Treasury Single Account (TSA), introduced in 2017, has alone saved the government ₹15,000 crore in interest costs, with another ₹11,000 crore saved since 2021-22, thanks to better fund utilisation enabled by PFMS.
With its vast reach and deep integration, Sitharaman said PFMS has truly transformed public financial governance. “Every rupee of taxpayer money can now be tracked—where it came from, where it’s going, and who’s receiving it. This is a new benchmark in transparent governance,” she concluded.
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