The Centre has notified free of cost foodgrains distribution for a year under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) as decided by the cabinet last week.

In a gazette notification, the Food Ministry said: “the Central government hereby decides that rice, wheat and coarse grains shall be provided free of cost for all eligible households under section 3 of the NFSA from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023.” However, there will be no changes in the issue prices of foodgrains supplied to States for other welfare programmes like mid-day meal, the notification said.

NFSA beneficiaries

The Union Cabinet on December 23 had approved distribution of food grains free of cost under NFSA for one year, potentially benefitting 81.35 crore population who were earlier purchasing the grains at ₹3/kg for rice, ₹2/kg wheat and ₹1/kg coarse cereal. As there was no announcement about extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for the January-March quarter, the beneficiaries will have to contend with regular quantity of 5 kg per person per month.

Under PMGKAY, all NFSA beneficiaries were getting additional same amount of foodgrains as eligible under the food law, but they were free of cost.

Highly subsidised grains

“A total of ₹2-lakh crore is to be spent on food security for free grains,” Food Minister Piyush Goyal had said. However, experts said the government would save about ₹40,000 crore as extending the PMGKAY for January-March period would have entailed an additional expenditure of nearly ₹44,000 crore, whereas by foregoing the claims on central issue prices, the burden may be ₹4,000 for one quarter.

As much as 75 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population are entitled to receive highly subsidised foodgrains under two categories of beneficiaries — Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households and Priority Households (PHH).