Food Min rejects FCI committee's suggestion on food law

The Food Ministry today rejected the Shanta Kumar committee's suggestion to cut the number of beneficiaries under the food security law to 40 per cent of the population against the current 67 per cent.
In its views on the Shanta Kumar's panel report on the FCI restructuring submitted to the Prime Minister's office (PMO) today, the Food Ministry has also disagreed on movement of foodgrains in containers in the absence of adequate infrastructure with FCI and Railways, according to sources.
In January this year, the eight-member committee, which was set up in August 2014 to recommend restructuring of Food Corporation of India (FCI), had submitted its report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi had asked the Food Ministry to expeditiously give its comments on the FCI restructuring plan proposed by the committee.
The Food Ministry has formalised its view on the committee's report on FCI restructuring and submitted it to the PMO today, the sources said.
The Ministry has disagreed to the panel's couple of recommendations including slashing of number of beneficiaries to 40 per cent of the population from the existing 67 per cent in the food law, they said.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Modi, while replying to a debate in Rajya Sabha on Motion of Thanks to the President's address, said: "There is a misinformation campaign about Food Security Act. There is no decision by the government to reduce coverage from 67 per cent of the population. It is not being brought down to 40 per cent. Do not spread such myth".

The Ministry has, however, agreed to implement other major recommendations of the committee and has given timeline for their early implementations, the sources added.
The panel, headed by BJP MP Shanta Kumar, had said that the government's food subsidy bill can come down by over Rs 30,000 crore a year by reducing coverage of beneficiaries to 40 per cent under the food law and outsourcing major work of FCI to states governments and private players.
The committee had suggested giving cash to beneficiaries and shifting rice and wheat procurement to states that do not have provisions for administered purchase price.

With states imposing higher 'mandi' taxes on wheat and rice, the panel had favoured uniform tax of minimum 3 per cent and maximum 4 per cent and the same to be included in the minimum support price (MSP). In Punjab, this tax rate now on wheat and rice is 14.5 per cent.