NEW DELHI: The government has estimated that the direct benefit transfer DBT ) scheme that it has expanded significantly has helped save around Rs 82,985 crore, a figure that a senior official told ET is expected to be juxtaposed by the ruling coalition in the run-up to the 2019 general election with the loss through scams during the tenure of the preceding United Progressive Alliance government.The scheme, which entails transfer of subsidies straight into the bank accounts of beneficiaries, helped save an additional Rs 25,956 crore in the 10 months to January 2018 by plugging leakages, officials said, while the overall savings amounted to Rs 82,985 crore since the launch of the scheme. The figure represents an increase of more than 45% over Rs 57,029 crore till March 2017 that Prime Minister Modi has often cited.Moreover, with the number of DBT beneficiaries rising to 118.3 crore, almost every Indian now benefits from the scheme launched by the UPA government on January 1, 2013. The 45% jump in saving resulted from further pruning of fake or duplicate beneficiaries and plugging of leakages that enabled “deserving beneficiaries” to get benefits, according to officials.They said Rs 12,792 crore of additional savings during the 10-month period came from bringing the public distribution system or PDS under DBT. The government has deleted 2.75 crore duplicate, fake or non-existent ration cards, including some due to migration and death, and the total cumulative savings due to PDS under DBT now stand at Rs 38,877 crore.Besides, the government said it has stopped subsidy for cooking gas to 3.85 crore duplicate, fake, non-existent or inactive consumers. “In addition, 2.29 crore consumers stopped claiming subsidy, including 1.04 crore consumers under the ‘Give It Up’ campaign started by the government,” said a government document. The cumulative savings under DBT for LPG subsidy have been pegged at Rs 38,877 crore.The government has included savings due to “other governance reforms” also for the updated figures.“Based on field studies, the rural development ministry has estimated 10% of savings on wages on account of duplicate, fake/non-existent and ineligible beneficiaries,” the government document saysregarding Rs 15,374 crore cumulative savings till January 2018 under its flagship rural jobs programme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.The document says the government deleted 1.54 crore duplicate beneficiaries in National Social Assistance Programme.