PMGKAY: Pandemic-Era Food Scheme Ends, Subsidised Grains For Poor Now Free
PMGKAY offered 5 kg free food grains per month in addition to the quota provided under the National Food Security Act.
The central government discontinued the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana scheme introduced during the pandemic. Instead, it will provide free food grains under the National Food Security Act, 2013 to eligible beneficiaries.
This will cover 81.35 crore beneficiaries and the extension will cost the government Rs 2 lakh crore, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said at the Cabinet briefing on Friday.
The PMGKAY was a scheme that provided 5 kg of food grains per month for free. This was in addition to the normal quota provided under the NFSA, at a subsidised rate of Rs 2-3 per kg.
The NFSA includes Priority Households and Antyodaya Anna Yojana households, each of whom are entitled to 35 kg of food grains each month (5 kg per person per month). The cost of grains is subsidised at Rs 2 per kg for wheat, Rs 3 per kg for rice and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains.
The PMGKAY began in April 2020, as part of Covid-19 relief efforts, but was renewed six times before its seventh phase ended in December 2022. It was last renewed in September for three months, despite reservations from the Finance Ministry with at an additional cost of Rs 44,762 crore.
Since its inception, the scheme has cost the government a total of Rs. 3.91 lakh crore over the last three years.
The announcement came after Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer Welfare Shobha Karandlaje told PTI that the government has sufficient stock of food grains but a decision on extending PMGKAY will be taken on Friday.
As on Dec. 15, around 180 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 111 LMT of rice are available in the central pool, according to a release last week from the the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
The central pool is sufficiently stocked to meet the requirement of NFSA and its other welfare schemes as well as for additional allocation of PMGKAY, it said.
It also noted that as on Jan 1, 2023, about 159 LMT of wheat and 104 LMT of rice will be available, well above the Jan. 1 buffer stock norms.