Explained: What is West Bengal’s cut money and what are the rates

New Delhi, July 04: The inroads made by the BJP in West Bengal has seen several from the Trinamool Congress defecting. Taking serious note of the same, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo, Mamata Banerjee ordered her party leaders to return the cut money that they had taken from the people.

What is Cut Money? Here is a brief explainer:

Cut money is an illegal commission that the party workers were charging from the people who wanted to avail benefits from government schemes.

For instance, a person from Hooghly paid Rs 550 to a TMC leader in order to avail an LPG connection under the Ujjwala scheme.

There are fixed rates for specific schemes that range between Rs 200 to 25,000 the Indian Express had reported.

The Samabyathi scheme provides Rs 2,000 for funerals and related expenses. People had even paid Rs 200 to avail this benefit.

For the Ujjwala scheme the cut money was between Rs 500 to Rs 600.

For the Banglar Bari (Prime Minister Awaz Yojana) it is between Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000.

For Nirmal Bangla it was Rs 900 to Rs 2,000

For MGNREGA it is Rs 20 to Rs 40 per day, the Indian Express also reported.