Expenditure committee chief Jalan bats for DBT

With the government working hard to achieve its fiscal deficit target of 3 percent by FY18, the Bimal Jalan Expenditure Management Committee's final report is one set of recommendations that is keenly awaited by the finance ministry. And the former RBI governor, who met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today, has batted very strongly for the direct benefit transfer scheme. That one development, he says, will go a long way in helping the process is the setting up of payment banks."We already have a DBT system. [We can can look at] utilisation of payments banks in rural areas by tying it up with DBT," he told CNBC-TV18. "Whenever action is taken to set up payment bank, it will increase the outreach of our financial system to the rural areas and we can implement it."