Pahal in Guinness Book of World Records
New Delhi   18-Aug-2015

Cash transfer program (households) implemented by oil marketing companies (OMCs) - Pratyaksha Hastaantarit Laabh (PAHAL) has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for being the largest cash transfer program (households).

A formal application was made to Guinness World Records for the title ‘Largest cash benefit program (households) based on the statistics as on 15th June 2015. The application was approved after (GWR) examined the claim for compliance under stringent parameters with respect to such cash transfer programs in countries like USA, China etc. and approved the title on 12th August 2015. “It is a matter of great pride and honour for the government of India that DBTL scheme is now the GWR Title Holder for the ‘Largest cash benefit program (households)’ in the World,” said a senior official.

Government of India launched the `PAHAL’ Scheme in 54 districts of the country on 15th November in the year 2014 and in remaining districts of the country on 1st January, 2015. Under DBTL (PAHAL) scheme, each LPG consumer has to link his Aadhaar number in the LPG database and in the bank account database. Alternately, LPG consumers who do not have Aadhaar number can also get subsidy into their bank account by simply linking their Bank Account with their LPG database.

“The scheme was designed to help consumers and in turn help the government of India in better subsidy management,” said the official. The project was a marvel of execution by the Oil Marketing Companies – viz. IndianOil, BPC & HPC. In a very short span of four months they managed to get 80% of their consumers to join the scheme. “Today, over 139 million consumers have joined the scheme and 236.18 billion rupees has already been transferred to their bank accounts, the official added.

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas rolled out the PAHAL scheme in mission mode. A separate PAHAL mission office was opened in New Delhi to monitor the implementation of scheme at all India level. Oil & Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, took the charge of Palwal district in Haryana while IndianOil Chairman was given the onus for bringing more than 8 crore INDANE customers under the scheme in New Delhi.