Centre Initiates Audit of Free Ration Plan

The open-ended nature of NFSA—Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2023 extended PMGKAY by five years—is seen as a major fiscal burden by analysts.

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When NFSA was enacted by the UPA-II government at the fag end of its tenure in 2013, it was stated that "issue prices" to beneficiaries would be revised in line with economic cost, which includes MSP procurement, storage, transportation and distribution expenses. Since this revision never happened, the gap between economic cost and issue prices has widened, and subsidy amounts have surged.

"As these beneficiary lists were prepared by states a decade back, there is a need to reverify the eligibility of people who are covered under the PMGKAY and include new beneficiaries," an official said. He, however, ruled out any sudden or sharp reduction in coverage under the free ration scheme.

Earlier, the Department of Food and Public Distribution had undertaken a "comprehensive exercise" to strengthen rightful targeting by matching the ration card management system (RCMS) database with those of the CBDT, CBIC, corporate affairs, road transport and highways ministries, and PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi.