The UPA government would have to settle for a much more realistic and doable version of its showpiece food security law. An expert panel set up by the Prime Minister has pitched for ?calibration? ? if not dilution ? of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council?s plan for a near-universal food safety net.

The panel headed by C Rangarajan highlighted constraints of food grain availability and procurement mechanism to contend that the largesse as conceived by NAC might not be feasible.

Under the NAC proposal, 75% of the country?s population will get legal entitlement to subsidised food grain by 2013-14 ? 7 kg per person for ?priority households? and 4 kg per person for general households.

In its report released Thursday, the expert panel said NAC had underestimated the food grain requirement for such an ambitious programme and ignored the fact that if procurement is stepped up beyond a limit, it could lead to distortions in the open market. The panel, therefore, recommended an alternative: for the time being, limit the programme to assured delivery of food grain at Rs 2/kg for wheat and Rs 3/kg for rice to the ?really needy households.? Later, depending on the availability of grain, the scheme could be extended to the rest of the target population, but with a varying quantum of entitlement.

NAC, however, sought to stand by its proposals. When contacted, council member NC Saxena said: ?If the concern is about food stocks, then why are exports being allowed? Moreover, if stocks are not enough, then we should start procurement from the eastern regions ? West Bengal, Orissa and Bihar.? He added that the council would meet January 21 to discuss the issue and take a view on it.

?Experience shows that when you push procurement, production also increases because farmers start investing more in agriculture. Neither are we procuring paddy from the eastern region nor are we stopping exports. Both these policies are faulty,? Saxena said.

According to the Rangarajan panel, the NAC proposals have subsidy implications larger than the council estimated and an inevitable dependence on imports which are a ?high-cost option.?

? Based on the current production and procurement trends, total food grain availability with the government in 2011-12 and 2013-14 is likely to be 56.35 million tonne and 57.61 million tonne respectively. It will not be possible to implement the NAC-recommended food entitlements for either of the phases,? the panel said. Instead, the committee suggested legal entitlement to 46% of rural and 28% of urban population, which it said ?are the same as NAC recommended priority households.? This captures not only the poor but also some at the margin, the panel said.

According to this committee, if the alternative proposed by it is implemented, the subsidy outgo would be Rs 68,539 crore in the first phase. Inclusive of the existing subsidies, the total subsidy for the first phase of the programme would be Rs 83,000 crore.

The Rangarajan panel included secretaries of expenditure, food & public distribution and agriculture departments.