The authorities has allotted greater than Rs 2.94 trillion in direction of meals subsidy bills to Food Corporation of India and to state authorities owned companies in 2021-22, an official assertion on Wednesday said.
Out of the entire bills below meals subsidy final fiscal, Rs 1.47 trillion was for implementation of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), the place 5 kg of foodgrains is offered free month-to-month to every of round 80 crore beneficiaries below National Food Security (NFSA). This entitlement of foodgrain below PMGKAY excludes 5 kg of extremely subsidised rice and wheat offered month-to-month to beneficiaries below NFSA.
The PMGKAY was first rolled out as a complete aid package deal in March 2020, ‘to reach out to the poorest of the poor’ and ‘help them fight the battle against Covid-19’.
Through the 5 part implementation of PMGKAY until March 31, 2022, the federal government has offered 75.8 mt of foodgrains with a subsidy burden of Rs 2.6 trillion, in accordance with the official assertion. With one other 24.4 mt of free foodgrains below this extension (Phase VI) until September 2022, the combination allocation of free foodgrains below the PM-GKAY would now stand at greater than 100 mt.
The budgetary provisioning for meals subsidy final fiscal was lower than Rs 5.4 trillion allotted in 2020-21, out of which Rs 3.4 trillion was offered for settling loans availed by FCI below the National Small Savings Fund.
Around 70% of the federal government’s meals subsidy price range is routed by way of FCI and the remainder is offered to state governments which comply with a decentralised procurement system.
The authorities had transferred Rs 2.3 trillion as Minimum Support Price (MSP) for procurement of greater than 94 million tonne (mt) of rice and wheat from 1.54 crore farmers in 2021-22.
As per the price range estimates, the federal government has made provision of Rs 2.06 trillion below the meals subsidy head for 2022-23. However, this provisioning doesn’t embody `0.8 trillion further bills to be incurred below the PMGKAY, because the programme was lately prolonged until September-end, 2022.
The financial price of meals grains procurement by the FCI, which incorporates bills corresponding to MSP cost to farmers, procurement, acquisition and distribution prices, and so on for rice and wheat are Rs 3,597.17 and Rs 2,499.69 per quintal, respectively, in 2021-22, whereas the federal government distributes rice and wheat to beneficiaries below NFSA at Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.
Food ministry lately said that regardless that the Covid-19 pandemic has considerably abated and financial actions are gathering momentum, PM-GKAY extension until September 2022 would be sure that “no poor household goes to bed without food during this time of recovery”.
To deal with anemia and micro-nutrient deficiency, the cupboard committee on financial affairs final week had accepted a proposal to produce fortified rice to all beneficiaries below NFSA, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) and different welfare schemes by March, 2024.
According to meals ministry officers, round 35 mt of fortified rice is required for provide grain to beneficiaries of NFSA, ICDS, PM POSHAN and different schemes yearly with an estimated price of Rs 2,700 crore, which might be a part of the central authorities’s meals subsidy price range.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”