A mere 3 per cent rise in food subsidy allocation in Budget 2012-13, taking the amount to Rs 75,000 crore, has fuelled talk of an impending delay in the nationwide roll-out of the Centre’s ambitious Food Security Act in the coming financial year.
The unchanged ways and means advance of Food Corporation of India (FCI) at Rs 10,000 crore also indicate that the public-sector unit’s cash flow requirement for procurement, storage and handling might not need a quantum increase from the current financial year.
Though Pranab Mukherjee did assure in his Budget speech that his finance ministry would provide for all subsidies related to the Bill and its administration during the course of the year, experts are of the view that it might not be the case in the final analysis. “Even if there is a phased roll-out of the Food Security Bill (covering only those families below the poverty line) by the end of the next financial year, there is sufficient foodgrain stocks in the central pool to meet any additional requirement,” according to a senior government official.
As on March 1, 2012, the corporation has already around 55 million tonnes of grains in the central pool — a mere 9-10 million tonnes less than the estimated grain required to operationalise the Food Security Bill.
This can be easily made up. For, wheat production during the current crop season is expected to be a record over 88 million tonnes.
Also, this year’s Budget has for the first time set aside Rs 0.50 crore for establishing the National and State Food Commissions, besides Rs 5 crore for the construction of fair-price shops-cum-godowns. Both are part of the draft Bill’s recommendations.
However, there are still questions such as if the Bill could be implemented in the coming financial year in its present form.
The Food Bill is being vetted by a standing committee of Parliament, which is not expected to give its recommendations during the Budget session of Parliament.
Food minister K V Thomas recently said that the food Bill was not likely to be passed in the current session, as the Centre was yet to finish consultation with states.
The Bill has been bitterly opposed by a section of the civil society as also the state governments, who feel it will take away their right to frame laws on the distribution of cheap grains to the poor.
The socio-economic castes census, which will identify the beneficiaries below the poverty line, will be over only by this July. Identification of beneficiaries is imperative for the implementation of the Bill, as it guarantees legal right to cheap food to only a part of the entire population.
The monsoon session of Parliament is expected to be convened around end July or early August, leaving very little time for the government to re-draft the Bill based on recommendations of the standing committee and also that of the states.
To arrive at a consensus, the food ministry has now proposed clubbing the priority and general-category households so as to empower states to identify the poor under the Act.
The draft Bill seeks to provide legal entitlement to almost 75 per cent of rural population and 50 per cent of urban population. Of this, around 46 per cent will be priority-category households in rural areas and 28 per cent in urban areas.
Grains will be supplied to priority-category households at Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains, while the general-category households will be get them at a price that will be 50 per cent of the then prevailing minimum support price.
