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Food & public distribution dept implements National Food Security Act
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Saturday, 15 December, 2018, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, New Delhi
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The following are the major highlights of the activities of the Department of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India, in the year 2018.
Implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013
Persistent efforts has resulted in the universal implementation of the NFSA, 2013 in all 36 states and Union Territories (UTs), benefiting 80.72 crore persons across India by providing them access to highly-subsidised foodgrains at Re 1, Rs 2 and Rs 3 per kg for coarse grains, wheat and rice, respectively.
The prices of foodgrains specified under NFSA were initially valid for a period of three years from the coming into force of the NFSA. These rates were extended from time to time upto June 2018. These have been further extended upto June 2019.
During Financial Year (FY) 2018-19 (upto December 5, 2018), Rs 2,575 crore has been released to state governments as Central assistance to meet the expenditure incurred on intra-state movement and handling of foodgrains and fair price shop dealers’ margins. Such an arrangement has been made for the first time under NFSA. Under the erstwhile targeted public distribution scheme (TPDS), state governments were required to either meet this expenditure on their own or pass it on to beneficiaries (other than AAY [Antyodaya Anna Yojana] beneficiaries).
End-to-end computerisation of TPDS operations
As an outcome of digitisation of ration card/beneficiary records, de-duplication due to Aadhaar seeding, transfer/migration/deaths, change in economic status of beneficiaries, and during the run-up to and implementation of NFSA, a total of 2.75 crore ration cards have been deleted/cancelled by state/UT governments during the years 2013 to 2017 (up to November 2017). Based on this, the government has been able to achieve an estimated rightful targeting of food subsidies of about Rs 17,500 crore per annum.
To modernise and to bring about transparency in the TPDS, the department is implementing a scheme for the end-to-end computerisation of TPDS operations at a total cost of Rs 884 crore on cost-sharing basis with the states and UTs. The scheme provides for digitisation of ration cards and beneficiary records, computerisation of supply chain management, setting up of transparency portals and grievance redressal mechanisms.
The key achievements under the scheme are as follows:
Serial number Schematic activity Achievement
1 Digitisation of ration cards/ beneficiaries data Completed in all states/UTs
2 Online allocation of food grains Completed in all states/UTs, except the UTs of Chandigarh and Puducherry, which have adopted the direct benefit transfer (DBT)/cash transfer scheme
3 Computerisation of supply chain management Completed in 25 states/UTs, and the work is in progress in the remaining states/UTs
4 Transparency portals Set up in all states/UTs
5 Grievance redressal facilities Toll-free helplines/online registration facility is available in all states/UTs
To identify and weed out duplicate/ineligible beneficiaries, and to enable rightful targeting of food subsidies, seeding of Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries with their ration cards is being done by the states and UTs. Presently, 85.61 per cent of all ration cards have been seeded.
As part of the scheme, electronic point-of-sale (ePoS) devices are being installed at fair price shops (FPSs) for distribution of foodgrains through authentication and electronic record-keeping of the sale transactions. As on date, 3.61 lakh FPSs out of a total of 5.34 lakh FPSs have ePoS devices in 29 states and UTs.
- Intra-state portability of ration cards: Facility enabling PDS beneficiaries to lift their entitled foodgrains from any fair price shop in the state has been started fully in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tripura, Kerala and partially in Madhya Pradesh
- Integrated Management of PDS (IM-PDS): A new Central sector scheme has been approved to be implemented during FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20 for establishing a public distribution system network (PDSN) to implement national-level portability, Central data repository and a Central monitoring system of PDS operations
- Launch of ePoS transactions portal: Annavitran Portal has been implemented to display electronic transactions made through ePoS devices for distribution of subsidised foodgrains to beneficiaries. This portal also shows an all-India picture of Aadhaar authentication of beneficiaries, besides allocated and distributed quantities of foodgrains up to the district level
Supporting the farmer
During KMS (Kharif market season) 2017-18, a record quantity of 381.84 lakh metric tonne (MT) paddy (in terms of rice) was procured. In 2016-17 KMS, it was 381.07 LMT. During RMS (Rabi market season) 2018-19, a quantity of 357.95 lakh MT of wheat was procured, which is the highest in last five years. In RMS 2017-18, it was 308.24 LMT.
Improving foodgrain management
About 40 million tonne of food grains are transported by FCI (the Food Corporation of India) across the country in a year. Movement of food grain is undertaken by rail, road, sea, coastal and riverine systems. In 2017-18, FCI moved 134 container rakes against the target of 100 leading to freight savings of approximately Rs 662 lakh. During 2018-19, 77 rakes have been moved (as on October 15, 2018), which led to freight savings of approximately Rs 352 lakh.
Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA)
The process of registration of warehouses with WDRA has been simplified. The new rules will promote increase in the number of warehouses registered with WDRA. This would enhance facility of pledge finance for the farmers through the negotiable warehouse receipts (NWR) system. During the year, loans worth Rs 51.45 crore have been availed against NWRs upto October 31, 2018.
The electronic negotiable warehousing receipt (eNWR) System and the WDRA portal have been launched to transform the process of registration of warehouses online and to issue e-NWR instead of paper-NWR, which will be a more credible financing tool.
Sugar sector
Due to surplus sugar production and depressed ex-mill prices of sugar, the liquidity position of sugar mills was adversely affected, leading to accumulation of cane price dues, which reached to an alarming level of about Rs 23,232 crore in the last week of May, 2018. With a view to improving the liquidity position of sugar mills, enabling them to clear the cane price arrears of farmers, the government has taken the following measures during last few months:
In order to prevent cash loss and to facilitate sugar mills to clear cane dues of farmers in time, the government has fixed a minimum selling price of sugar at Rs 29 per kg for sale at factory gate in domestic market, below which no sugar mill can sell sugar.
- Extending assistance to sugar mills at Rs 5.50 per quintal of cane crushed for sugar season 2017-18 to offset the cost of cane amounting to about Rs 1,540 crore;
- Created buffer stock of 30 lakh metric tonne (LMT) in sugar season 2017-18, for which the Government will reimburse carrying cost of Rs 1,175 crore towards the maintenance of a buffer stock;
- Extending soft loans of Rs 6,139 crore through banks to the mills for setting up new distilleries and the installation of incineration boilers to augment ethanol production capacity, for which the government will bear interest subvention of Rs 1,332 crore;
- Extending assistance to sugar mills at Rs 13.88 per quintal of cane crushed for sugar season (SS) 2018-19 to offset the cost of cane amounting to about Rs 4,163 crore, and
- Extending assistance to sugar mills for defraying expenditure towards internal transport, freight, handling and other charges to facilitate the export of sugar from the country in SS 2018-19, amounting to about Rs 1,375 crore
The government has also notified the new National Policy on Bio-Fuels, 2018 under which sugarcane juice has been allowed for production of ethanol. Further, the government has fixed the remunerative price of ethanol produced from C-Heavy molasses and B-Heavy molasses/sugarcane juice separately for supply under the ethanol blending programme (EBP) during ethanol season 2018-19.
As a result of the above measures, the all-India cane price arrears of farmers have also came down to Rs 5,465 crore from the peak arrears of about Rs 23,232 crore on state-advised price (SAP) basis for SS 2017-18. On a fair and remunerative price (FRP) basis, the all-India cane price arrears of farmers have come down to Rs 1,924 crore from the peak arrears of about Rs 14,538 crore.
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