Government to release Rs 19,000 crore under PM-Kisan

The Union government will transfer the next instalment of PM-Kisan totalling Rs 19,000 crore on 9 August, according to a Hindustan Times report. The cash transfer scheme is likely to benefit about 90 million farmers.

Launched during Union Budget 2019, the PM Kisan Sammann Nidhi scheme provides annual income support of Rs 6,000 to every land-owning farmer. The money is paid in three equal cash transfers of Rs 2,000, once every four months.

The last instalment was released in May this year. The government had disbursed a little more than Rs 19,000 crore to 90 million beneficiaries under the scheme. So far, the government has paid nearly Rs 1.15 lakh crore under the scheme, according to the report.

Any farmer can enroll for PM-Kisan by applying at local revenue offices or a state’s nodal officer for the scheme, who is nominated by the state government. Farmers can also register themselves through the PM-Kisan portal and common service centres.

States have to upload data to a centralised public finance management system, a platform that auto verifies bank accounts and checks biometric Aadhaar details of beneficiaries sent by states. These are then sent back to states for physical signatures.