Centre releases Rs 2,94,718 crore to FCI, states as food subsidy last fiscal

The Centre has released Rs 2,94,718 crore towards food subsidy during the last fiscal to Food Corporation of India (FCI) and states, which is slightly higher than the revised budget estimates.

During the financial year 2021-22, the Department of Food & Public Distribution released Rs 2,94,718 crore towards food subsidy, under both DCP (decentralised procurement) and non-DCP operations put together, against the revised Estimates of Rs 2,92,419.11 crore.

“This release of food subsidy is about 140% of the food subsidy released during 2020-21 and about 267 per cent of the food subsidy released during 2019-20,” an official statement said.

The subsidy has been released for procurement operations under MSP (minimum support price) and seamless distribution of foodgrains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) and National Food Security Act 2013 (NFSA).

In the last fiscal, the department spent 99.83 per cent of its expenditure by incurring Rs 3,04,361 crores against net allocation of Rs 3,04,879 crore.

The department “always look forward to ensure that the benefits of its schemes reach out to various vulnerable sections of the society,” the statement said.

In this direction, during financial year 2021-22, the department released about Rs 24,000 crore for the benefit of Scheduled Castes, Rs 12,000 crore for Scheduled Tribes and more than Rs 400 crore for North Eastern Region.

In order to address the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre released additional foodgrain free of cost at 5 kg per person per month to more than 80 crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY), which is over and above their entitlement of foodgrain under the NFSA.

This additional allocation has been made in five phases so far from April 2020 to March 2022.

“Since inception, a total of 758 lakh tonnes of foodgrain has been allocated under the scheme with financial implication of Rs 2.60 lakh crore. PMGKAY has now been extended till September, 2022, which will involve an additional allocation of 244 lakh tonnes of foodgrain with additional financial implication of about Rs 80,851 crore,” the statement said.