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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Food Act may cost govt Rs 63k cr every year by Rajeev Deshpande

Food Act may cost govt Rs 63k cr every year by Rajeev Deshpande

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published Published on Apr 13, 2010   modified Modified on Apr 13, 2010

If Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s indication that 35 kg of foodgrain a family and the Tendulkar committee estimate of 8.3 crore BPL households could be the basis of the national food security Act, then the government’s bill adds up to a staggering Rs 63,750 crore a year.

At 25 kg a BPL family, it is slightly less at Rs 54,200 crore, which is roughly the food subsidy estimated in the 2010-11 budget by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. But the budgeted figure is provisional as last year the final bill came to Rs 72,200 crore due to rising cost of foodgrain and higher procurement, a 65% hike over the previous fiscal.

It is now clear that the number of BPL families to be covered by NFSA and the quantum of foodgrain is going to be increased after Sonia Gandhi wrote to PM Manmohan Singh pointing to demands to make the proposed Act more inclusive. UPA-1’s farm loan waiver was initially budgeted at Rs 60,000 crore and finally added up to Rs 72,000 crore.

Now that the final sketch of the Act is being drawn before the EGoM headed by Mukherjee clears it, the costs are coming home to roost even as the government and states spar on the number of BPL families. If BPL cards issued by states are taken into account, the number totals 11.5 crore while according to Planning Commission, it is 6.52 crore families. As NFSA will be centrally funded, states are bound to push for an increase in BPL numbers.

Having presented NFSA as UPA-2’s premier welfare programme, government can hardly back out or even trim the scheme with Opposition CMs joining civil society activists in calling for an inclusive Act. While it may not accept the “nutritional” approach which wants pulses and edibile oil to be included in the NFSA, it will still be left with the task of delivering 354 lakh tonnes of foodgrain to beneficiaries.

Going by current figures, the bill for 35 kg a family is Rs 52,000 crore, for the N C Saxena committee estimate of 50% of population being under the poverty line on basis of calorie intake it is Rs 74,300 crore. These are daunting figures to budget when the government also has other big ticket items like right to education to fund. Officials point out that apart from the funding, availability of food stocks has to be considered carefully before the NFSA rolls out.

In 2009-10, spurred by the drought, the government procured nearly 600 lakh tonnes of foodgrain as against a normal 400 lakh tonnes. Going by the Tendulkar committee estimates, just the BPL segment will need 345 lakh tonnes. If APL is retained, the total will be 536 lakh tonnes.

There is the added fear — that massive withdrawals from the market that are more than half the total foodgrain production — will also have an inflationary impact on retail prices.


The Times of India, 14 April, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Food-Act-may-cost-govt-Rs-63k-cr-every-year/articleshow/5799095.cms


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