During FY 2021–22, the economy rebounded, with the GDP registering a growth of 8.9% On January 1, 2023, the Union Government terminated the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). Accordingly, in the Union budget 2023-24, it has reduced allocation for food subsidy from Rs 287,000 crore during 2022-23 (RE) to Rs 197,000 crore. Beginning in April 2020, PMGKAY provided 5 kg of rice or wheat per person per month for “free” via the Public Distribution System (PDS), as well as 1 kg of pulses per family per month to around 820 million families. Run for three months initially, the scheme got six extensions till December 31, 2022. In the unprecedented situation triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic of large-scale job and income...
More
Comments are closed
Category: Public distribution system (PDS)
Wheat export – policy flip flop
In the backdrop of increase in international price of wheat (courtesy, Ukraine crisis) early this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had exhorted that India can help meet the global requirements of food deficit countries, provided the World Trade Organisation (WTO) allows it. He also exuded confidence that this had created an opportunity for Indian farmers to increase their income. Even as stakeholders were gearing to undertake export with several of them having signed contracts, on May 13, 2022, the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) put a ban on wheat export with ‘immediate’ effect. The exports under government-to-government arrangements and contracts signed prior to May 13, 2022 are exempt. The government has sought to explain the ban in terms of...
More
Comments are closed
Dealing with ‘ration mafia’
Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister (CM), National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi has justified its much trumpeted scheme for door-step delivery of ration on the ground that this will help reining in what he describes as ‘ration mafia’ while ensuring that every grain of the subsidized food actually reaches the person (read: the poor) for whom it is intended. Who is this ‘ration mafia’? How does it plunder the subsidized food? Can the scheme prevent it? To get to the bottom of it, we need to see as to how the existing system of distributing food to the beneficiaries works. Under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) (2013), the Union Government directs the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state...
More
Comments are closed
Legalising MSP will prove to be anti-farmer
Out of about 150 million farmers, a mere 8% of them get to sell their produce to the state agencies In the continuing stalemate over the three farm laws, the biggest sore point is the insistence of the agitating farmers that the MSP (minimum support price) should be legally guaranteed. At present, the Centre notifies MSP for 23 farm items. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other state agencies buy paddy and wheat, besides a few other items such as coarse cereals and pulses, at the MSP. These are meant for feeding the public distribution system (PDS) and giving food to beneficiaries at heavily subsidised prices under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Out of about 150 million farmers,...
More
Comments are closed
Farm Laws: Centre must not yield to ‘mandatory MSP’
Mandatory MSP and Levies on non-APMC markets will be an assault on the reforms the Union government has ushered in with the new farm laws Currently, under the APMC system, a farmer has to pay three levies on the produce she brings to the mandi, notified by the state government under its APMC Act. —————————————————————— To address the concerns of agitating farmers over the three farm bills enacted in September, the Union minister for agriculture & farmers welfare, NS Tomar, has agreed to consider (i) strengthening the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) by imposing levies at ‘uniform’ rate on purchase at APMC and non-APMC platforms—latter now permitted under the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; and...
More
Comments are closed
Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg
In a bid to accommodate the concerns of agitating farmers over the three farm bills enacted by Modi – government in September, 2020, the Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Narendra S Tomar has given positive signal on following points:- (i) require every trader transacting with the farmers to register (under the extant law, the former only needs to have PAN number); (ii) in the event of dispute, allow farmer to go to higher courts (the present law provides for dispute resolution at magistrate’s level); (iii) strengthen the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) by imposing levies at ‘uniform’ rate on purchase at APMC and non-APMC platforms – transactions at the latter are permitted following enactment of the Central law...
More
Comments are closed
Plug the leaks
The Government should stop selling food at a subsidised price through the PDS. Instead, it should limit its role to crediting subsidy directly to the accounts of beneficiaries Since 2014, the Narendra Modi Government has weeded out close to 44 million bogus ration cards by using the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure viz. digitisation, seeding of Aadhaar on ration cards, electronic point of sale machines at retail shops and so on. However, this addresses only a small aspect of the problem and that, too, is unlikely to be rooted out completely with the use of technology alone. Besides, large-scale diversion and black marketing of grain, inclusion of the privileged among beneficiaries, a ballooning subsidy bill and so on will persist so long as...
More
Comments are closed
Food distribution – stem the rot
During the past seven years or so, the government has weeded out close to 44 million bogus ration cards with 17 million junked in Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone (other states where substantial number of bogus ration cards have been weeded out include West Bengal 7 million, Maharashtra 4 million besides Karnataka, Rajasthan and Telangana where more than a million each have been eliminated). This has happened mostly under Modi – government. It successfully used the IT infrastructure (digitization, seeding of ration cards with Aadhar and installation of electronic PoS machine at retail shops). Currently, there are 230 million ration cards (815 million individual beneficiaries). The weeded out bogus cards or 44 million is about 20%. This is creditable especially when...
More
Comments are closed
Food for thought
The co-existence of APMC and non-APMC markets giving competition to each other is the best foot forward for ensuring a fair deal to farmers The enactment of the three farm laws by the Central Government has triggered agitations by farmers’ organisations and a spate of counters, specially from non-NDA ruled States. Their main worry is that growers won’t get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) on sales made outside the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis (markets). All this, when it is well-known that under the APMC, agriculturists are already getting a raw deal. The constitutional validity of the farm laws has been challenged in the Supreme Court, too, with the Chhattisgarh Government arguing that these have in effect repealed the...
More
Comments are closed
Future mortgaged for food
Tax collections are far from adequate to pay for free food and the Govt is borrowing heavily to make up for the shortfall, thereby imposing an unsustainable burden on the future generation of taxpayers To shield millions of poor from the devastation caused by the Covid-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the Government would give five kg of rice or wheat per person per month for “free” to around 80 crore people through the Public Distribution System (PDS) for three months. It would also give for “free” one kg of pulses per household for three months. This was in addition to five kg of cereals per person per month that 80 crore beneficiaries are already getting at a heavily-subsidised price...
More
Comments are closed