The Centre has extended the mixed route of wage payment including  National Automated Clearing House and Aadhaar Based Payment  System- ABPS  route till 31st of December this year. Ministry of Rural Development has also made it clear to all the States that the beneficiary who comes for work should be requested to provide the Aadhaar number but will not be refused work on this basis. It said, if a beneficiary does not demand for work, in such case her or his status about eligibility for APBS does not affect the demand for work. The Ministry has clarified that job cards cannot be d on the basis of reason that the worker is not eligible for ABPS. Referring to the National Payments Corporation of India data, the Ministry added that there is a higher success percentage of 99.55 per cent or above where the Aadhaar is enabled for Direct Benefit Transfer.  In case of Account-based payment such success is about 98 per cent.

Aadhaar-based payment system is nothing but a route through which the payment is getting credited in the account of beneficiaries.

The Ministry added that APBS is helping the genuine beneficiaries to get their due payment and is instrumental in curbing corruption by weeding out fake beneficiaries. It said, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme has not adopted Aadhaar-enabled payment as the scheme has opted for Aadhaar Based Payment system.