There could be few takers among states for the food ministry?s proposal to allocate grain to below poverty lines (BPL) families at prices lower than the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) rates.
Infrastructure constraints and the extra subsidy burden, a part of which might have to be borne by them are the reasons behind the states? lukewarm response.
Food minister KV Thomas has recently stated that BPL families should be supplied with rice at R2 per kg and wheat at R3 per kg as envisaged under the food security bill even before it is passed by parliament and signed into law by the President.
This, the minister said, would ensure that states are able to increase the offtake for the additional food grains allocations from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) over and above the TPDS.
?In case of allocation of rice and wheat under TPDS, the offtake by the states was 89% during 2008-9 and 2009-10 and 92% and 94% during 2010-11 and first three months of the current year 2011-12,? Thomas said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
However, Thomas admitted to the fact that in case of additional allocation made during 2009-10 and 2010-11 to states, the offtake has been much less ? around 25.6% and 50.25% respectively.
?The lower offtake in some states is attributable to state?s inability to absorb additional allocations due to additional subsidy being borne by them on account of further subsidisation, short placement of stocks at some FCI depots due to movement bottlenecks among others,? Thomas told Lok Sabha.
The ?priority category? as referred in the food bill are similar to the current classification of BPL families. At present, wheat to BPL families is sold at R4.15 per kg and rice at R5.65 every kg respectively. Sources said the food ministry had already had preliminary meetings with finance ministry and agriculture ministry officials about financial implications of the proposal.
In order to create storage capacity for the forthcoming paddy crop, the government has been repeatedly urged states to lift additional food grains beyond their TPDS allocations.
The government has allotted 5 million tonne of additional quantity of food grains for BPL category and another 5 million tonne for APL category. Besides a special allocation of 5 million tonne to 150 poor districts as directed by Supreme Court has been done.
Out of 7.3 million tonne of grain storage capacity approved under the Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee Scheme, 6.3 million tonne worth of capacity has been sanctioned in these 8 states. ?All the states were requested to complete the work in a time bound manner and see to it that the proposed storage capacity is made available by next year,? Thomas said. After the passage of food bill, the government?s food subsidy bill is expected to got up to R94,987 crore from the current level of R74,231 crore.