NEW DELHI: The government will likely put some money in your bank account every month if it goes ahead with a proposal currently being considered at the highest levels. The plan is to expand the direct cash transfer scheme, by deducting a portion of the subsidy each family receives through various government welfare schemes and putting an equivalent amount of cash in the account of the beneficiary.To begin with, it will pay 5% of the total subsidy in cash, said a senior government official who is part of the deliberations on the matter. A pilot programme is likely to be launched within a month.Many consumers already get cooking gas subsidy directly in their bank accounts as part of the Centre’s efforts to plug leakages in its welfare programmes.The latest proposal is aimed at deepening financial inclusion by offering a basic income to the poor consumer that she can decide where to spend, thereby boosting demand in an economy where the signs of growth are still feeble.Authorities are still working on a mechanism to decide the quantum of income to be transferred to each family. According to the latest Socio-Economic & Caste Census, India had 24.39 crore households and the Centre’s subsidy budget for fiscal 2015-16 was Rs 2.43 lakh crore.A back-of-the-envelop calculation shows that each household could get more than Rs 800 a month in cash if the entire subsidy is transferred directly to their accounts. If it is distributed among only the poor, each could get well over Rs 2,000, assuming that 40% of the households are poor.Since subsidies are prone to leakage, direct transfer will ensure better delivery and efficiency gains will be more than when the subsidies are given through other means.Analysts said the government’s intention was good, but they were unsure how it would implement the scheme.“An income support is really innovative as it would empower people to make a choice,” said DK Joshi, principal economist at Crisil . “However, how successful the initiative will be has to be seen because the same amount of money is being diverted and there is no additional financial support from the government.”DK Pant of India Ratings said the success of the programme would partly depend on how the right beneficiaries were identified. The pilot will be launched in 10% of the 300-odd food surplus districts in the country using the Aadhaar database, the government official said.Using the Aadhaar database could cause hiccups when the scheme is launched nationwide, as Aadhaar still doesn’t cover the entire population and the SC has ordered that it shouldn’t be insisted upon to offer state support.NC Saxena, a former member of the now-defunct Planning Commission , said he didn’t want subsidy transfer to substitute government support in providing public goods such as health and education. It should be additional money, he said.How it will workIf the total subsidy outgo towards a family of seven in a village — an earning couple, elderly parents and three kids — is Rs 7,000 a month including old-age pension or scholarship, Rs 350 as 5% of this will be transferred to the account of one of the family members The government may choose to transfer the money to the account of an elderly woman member of the family to avoid misuse, the official said.