Of the total budget of Rs 39.45 lakh crore allocated by the central government for the financial year 2022-23, 5.2% will be spent on food subsidy programmes. For the year 2022-23, the government had allocated a budget of Rs 2.06 lakh crore for food subsidy. After giving an extension of six months to the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) to feed the poor, the total amount of expenditure on this item is estimated to cross 3.40 lakh crores.
The government provides food grains to the poor at affordable rates under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has an important role in this.
Expenditure under PMGKAY
According to the data of the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution, in the year 2020-21, Uttar Pradesh has spent the maximum amount of Rs 36,058 crore. After this, 17,282.94 crores have been spent in Bihar, 15,112.17 crores in West Bengal, 1,121.49 crores in Uttarakhand and 6,913.97 crores in Jharkhand.
Record expenditure in the financial year 2020-21
The BJP government at the Center had allocated a total budget of Rs 1,15,570 crore for food subsidy for the year 2020-21. However, during this period the amount spent on food subsidy had crossed Rs 4,22618 crore. There was an increase of 366 per cent in the amount spent as compared to the allocation. This is the highest increase in the last ten years.
An amount of more than 80 thousand crore rupees will be spent on the scheme for the next six months. 2.60 lakh crore rupees have been spent so far. Let us tell you that the total expenditure will be beyond 3.40 crores. Let us tell you that five kilograms of ration will be available per person per month. 80 crore people will benefit from this.
PDS country’s biggest welfare scheme
903 crore people are eligible for this scheme which is 67 per cent of the country’s population. After four sectors – defence, transport, allocation to states, pension payments, the largest amount is spent on food subsidies.