Busy working out the cost details of the ambitious National Food Security Act, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council is concerned over the proposed issue price of wheat at `3 per kg, which goes against the existing Antyodaya Anna Yojana, under which around 10 crore poorest of the poor are already getting wheat at `2 per kg.
This will mean that these poor people will have to pay `1/kg more for their monthly quota of wheat than what they currently do as the general agreement in the NAC is for issuing 35 kg food grains per BPL family per month at `3 /kg. For rice the AAY beneficiaries are already paying an issue price of `3 per kg, so this should not be a hassle.
The propose National Food Security Act plans to revamp and subsume the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), under which food grains at differential issue prices are given to the above poverty line (APL), below poverty line (BPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) categories.
While around 11.5 crore APL families get wheat and rice at `6.10 per kg and `8.30 per kg respectively, about 6.5 crore BPL households pay `4.15 per kg for wheat and `5.65 per kg for rice under the TPDS.
While the element of subsidy for AAY is `13.44 per kg for wheat and `17.43 per kg for rice, in case of BPL the government provides a subsidy of `11.29 per kg for wheat and `14.78 per kg for rice.
The TPDS takes care of around 2.5 crore AAY families, whose number works out to be 10 crore persons keeping in mind an average of four members per household.
While the food ministry estimates put the government’s food subsidy bill at `58,000 crore, various scenarios prepared by the NAC working group on food security have projected the cost to implement the right to food law between `90,000 crores and `1,20,000 crores.