Rs 4995 crore Central subsidy to provide ration sugar at existing rates
K V Thomas, minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, informed the Lok Sabha on Tu…K V Thomas, minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that the Central government is providing subsidy for distribution of sugar through fair price shops in the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) at a uniform Retail Issue Price (RIP) throughout the country. He was replying to a written question in the House.
He said that the Central government has considered the recommendations of Dr C Rangarajan Committee on deregulation of sugar sector on April 4, 2013, and, has, inter-alia, decided to do away with levy obligation on sugar mills.
However, to make sugar available in the TPDS at the existing RIP of Rs 13.50 per kg, the Central government would reimburse the subsidy @ Rs 18.50 per kg, limited to the quantity based on the states / UTs existing allocations. Considering that the states / UTs quota is about 27 lakh tonne, the total subsidy would amount to approximately Rs 4,995 crore.
Thomas said that under the new dispensation, state governments / UT Administrations would procure sugar in a transparent manner from the open market and claim subsidy from the Central government for the quantity distributed in the TPDS. The guidelines for claiming subsidy were being framed and would be issued shortly.
Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) for Subsidised Food Grains
In another written reply, the minister said that in order to make the TPDS more focussed and targeted at the poorest of the poor, AAY was launched in December 2000 in all states / UTs for one crore families to be identified from the Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
Coverage under this scheme has been expanded thrice since then i.e. during 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 covering additional 50 lakh households each time. Thus the total coverage under AAY was raised to 2.50 crore AAY families. The identification of AAY families within the target of AAY families allocated to each state / UT is the responsibility of concerned state / UT government.
Against the accepted number of 2.50 crore AAY families given to state / UT governments, upto March 2013, they have reported issuance of AAY ration cards to 2.43 crore AAY families. Allocation of food grains (rice & wheat) to these AAY families is made @ 35 kg per family per month at a highly subsidised Central Issue Price (CIP) of Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 3 per kg for rice.
