Why is Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System required for crediting subsidies?

Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) System, that uses Aadhaar number for electronic crediting of government subsidies and benefits in Aadhaar-linked bank account which were earlier mostly done either in cash or cheque. Besides transferring the benefits and subsidies under DBT schemes, the system also serves the goal of financial inclusion and provides an opportunity to the Government to attempt financial re-engineering of its subsidy management program.

Under APB system, mapping is a process of connecting a Bank with Aadhaar number which is facilitated by NPCI for ‘Direct Benefit Transfer’ to the respective Bank who has linked the Aadhaar. Individual users of the banks require Class II Digital Certificates for for digitally signing the APB System files. The Aadhaar numbers along with the IIN (BIN) of the bank stored in NPCI mapper are used to identify the destination bank for routing the benefits and subsidies to the intended beneficiaries at the destination bank. On receipt of amount of subsidies and benefits, the bank credits the amount to the desired account number based on the Aadhaar number of the beneficiary. Banks need to upload Aadhaar number of the customer in NPCI mapper in a specified file format through NACH portal.  Banks get following reports at the End of Day (EOD).

• Aadhaar Mapped Report – This report contains Aadhaar numbers’ uploaded by the bank on that particular day.
• Aadhaar Moved out Report – This report contains Aadhaar numbers’ moved out to other banks on that particular day.

In case, a customer seeds his/her Aadhaar number in multiple bank accounts, the previous mapping if any in the NPCI mapper, gets overwritten by the fresh seeding of the Aadhaar number. The customer Aadhaar number will get mapped in NPCI mapper to the bank in which he/she has given the Aadhaar number at the last. NPCI mapper uses the latest IIN of the bank in which the customer has seeded his/her Aadhaar number to transfer benefits and subsidies in his/her bank account. APB System will reject the transactions for those records for which the Aadhaar number is not available in NPCI mapper at the time of input file upload by the sponsor bank.

Benefits of APB system:

• The electronic transfer of subsidy eliminates inordinate delays, multiple channels & paper-work involved in the earlier system.
• Since transaction processing by destination banks on the basis of Aadhaar numbers, customer is not required to convey the bank account details or change in bank details to the Government Department or Agency. This is because NPCI does not maintain bank account details of the customers like account number, IFS code and branch address etc. of the customer in NPCI mapper.
• Customer not required opening multiple bank accounts for receiving benefits and subsidies of various social welfare schemes. Just one bank account seeded with Aadhar number is enough to start receiving benefits and subsidies directly into his/her Aadhaar Enabled Bank Account.

Customers can dial to *99*99# from any GSM mobile and check the Aadhaar number mapping status in NPCI mapper.  Moreover, LPG consumers can check the Aadhaar number mapping status by visiting the transparency portal of the respective OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies) website.

Source: NPCI/RBI