Grain procurement by the government could see a quantum jump in coming years if the proposed Food Security Bill, which assures distribution of subsidised grain to large section of population, is enacted.
Food minister KV Thomas on Wednesday said the annual foodgrain procurement could reach more than 60 million tonne from the current level of 40 million tonne.
Correspondingly, the government’s food security bill also expected to reach R1 lakh crore per annum from around R74,000 crore now.
The government?s food subsidy bill has been rising because of a combination of an increase in procurement of grains for the central pool, higher minimum support price and additional allocation of rice and wheat to poor families through ration shops and the open market. As a result, the subsidy outgo on food rose to R74,231 crore during 2010-11 from R58,242 crore in the previous fiscal. This figure is expected to cross R80,000 crore in the current fiscal.
?In spirit, we have accepted the proposal of the National Advisory Council and over the next two to three days we would finalise the draft Food Security Bill and present it to the empowered group of ministers,? Thomas said.
However, he was noncommittal on the possibility of the proposed Bill to be introduced in the forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament. On augmenting storage, Thomas said the Food Corporation of India (FCI) is increasing adding capacity under the private entrepreneurs? guarantee (PEG) scheme, which would see an additional capacity of 4 million tonne by the end of current fiscal.
Besides, the food ministry has also asked state governments to create additional storage facilities by taking loans from Nabard with a soft interest rate of only 5%. Nabard has earmarked around R2,000 crore for the purpose, Thomas said.
At present FCI and state-owned agencies have storage capacities of more than 62 million tonne, of which 17.5 million tonne is under the so-called cover and plinth method, under which foodgrains cannot be stored for long.
According to latest food ministry data, the total stocks of mostly wheat and rice was more than 65.47 million tonne at the start of this month against the combined strategic and buffer stocks norms of 31.2 million tonne. This was also the highest ever recorded level of stocks.
While the rice stock was more than 27.76 million tonne, the FCI had 37.88 million tonne of wheat in its warehouses, the data said.