The Treasury has disclosed that duplicate Aswesuma welfare payments totaling Rs. 248.79 million were inadvertently disbursed to thousands of beneficiaries due to a payment file being uploaded twice during the processing of festive allowances. This error occurred while distributing additional allowances approved before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. The Welfare Benefits Board stated that 1,698,412 families were part of the payment process, with the duplication affecting some beneficiaries in the 'poor' category who received double payments for April. While immediate steps were taken to halt further duplicate transfers and reverse excess payments, 49,759 beneficiaries had already withdrawn the funds. The Board will recover Rs. 248,795,000 from May's disbursements, with officials citing immense time pressure as the cause of the mistake.