The National Advisory Council headed by Sonia Gandhi will have to strike a balance between the social welfare agenda and fiscal prudence in order to achieve the aim of universal entitlement under the proposed National Food Security Act.
The real test, said sources, is to work out the targets keeping in mind the count of beneficiaries, availability of foodgrains and managing finances to create a food security umbrella for all.
“We have to see the level to which we can go given the foodgrain procurement and the number of targeted beneficiaries,” said an NAC member. “Whether entitlement is universal or semi-universal we will have to see.” Foodgrain procurement in the country has been around 55 million tonnes over the past three years but implementation of an ambitious food security law would need more if the PDS has to be universalised. Activists said with poverty in the country rising and the criterion of identifying poor faulty, the primary aim of the NAC is to cover maximum number of targeted beneficiaries under the right to food law.
The Planning Commission has said the current count of BPL families is around 8.3 crore, based on projections of the Suresh Tendulkar committee, which has pegged the number of poor people at 37.5 per cent of the population.
This is more that the 6.5 crore families, who currently get subsidised ration under the PDS, and will increase the country’s food subsidy bill, which stands at Rs 39,000 crore at present.
Experts said the government is faced with a difficult situation.
While on one hand the government is keen to go ahead with fiscal consolidation by keeping a tab on its whopping food subsidy bill, on the other, enhancing the scope of the food security net is bound to push up the subsidy cost.
This cost, said experts, would be huge if the PDS is made universal. The NAC The NAC will further brainstorm over the challenges and try to arrive at some conclusions before its meeting on July 14, said sources.