The Middle has cut the portion for ‘Food Endowment for Decentralized Obtainment of Foodgrains’ under the Public Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, Financial plan reports show.
The archives show Rs 59,793 crore has been dispensed under the head “Food Sponsorship for Decentralized Acquirement of Foodgrains under NFSA” for 2023-24, which is lower than 2022-23 modified gauges (RE) of Rs 72,282.50 crore.
It is additionally lower than the BE (monetary appraisals) of Rs 60,561.19 crore for the year 2022-23.
The cash apportioned under this head is utilized to give food appropriations to state legislatures for procurfoodgrainsrain for the Focal Pool “under the Decentralized Acquisition of Foodgrains Plan and Stronghold of Rice through PDS to address weakness and micronutrient inadequacy”.
The obtainment of food grain for the Focal Pool is finished under two frameworks: the Concentrated acquirement framework (Non-DCP) and the Decentralized acquisition framework (DCP).
The decrease in distribution for the DCP states is huge, as these states contribute about around 50% of the complete rice and three-fourths of the wheat amount acquired for the Focal Pool in the country.
According to subtleties accessible on the FCI, there are 15 states under the DCP for rice: Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Tripura. Out of the all-out rice acquisition of 434.83 LMT till January 23 during the kharif advertising season 2022-23, around 43 percent (188.9 LMT) came from these rice DCP details.
There were eight states under DCP for wheat: Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Punjab. About 75 percent (142.57 LMT) of the entire wheat procurement of 187.92 lakh metric tonnes during the rabi marketing season 2022-23 was from these eight DCP states.
A spokesperson at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution said, “Ministry of Finance (MOF) for BE-2022-23 had allocated funds for DCP States for Rs 60,561.19 crore and in the revised estimates (RE) for 2022-23 MOF has allocated 72,282.50 crores, including PMGKAY schemes which were initially extended up to September 30, 2022, and then up to December 31, 2022.”
“Further, it is also stated that MoF has allocated the BE for 2023-24 for Rs 59,793 crore, which is subject to revision as per requirement in the future if any. The Central government has been providing a sufficient budget in BE and RE under food subsidy as per requirement.”