Govt’s food subsidy expected to be little less than Rs 4 lakh crore in current fiscal: Food Secretary

31 Dec 2021 Evaluate

Food Secretary Sudhansu Pandey has said the government's food subsidy is expected to be a little less than Rs 4 lakh crore in the current financial year (FY22) as against Rs 5.29 lakh crore in the previous fiscal. Pandey stated about Rs 2.25 lakh crore food subsidy is estimated for procurement and distribution of foodgrains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and an additional Rs 1.47 lakh crore has been incurred for implementing the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

Under NFSA, the government currently gives highly subsidised foodgrains at Rs 1-3 per kg to over 81 crore people through the public distribution system (PDS). Over and above the subsidised foodgrains, the government during the pandemic is also supplying free foodgrains to NFSA beneficiaries under the PMGKAY. This scheme has been extended multiple times and is now valid till March 2022.

Besides, he also said the year 2021 was an extraordinary year for many reasons as the government made extraordinary efforts that were unprecedented in nature amid the pandemic circumstances. One is that state-owned FCI undertook major transformation changes and there has also been 62 per cent growth in the ethanol blending program this year. Ethanol blending with petrol increased from 5 per cent to 8.1 per cent in one year, the highest ever.

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