FY26 food subsidy bill may surpass BE by 15%

THE GOVERNMENT'S FOOD subsidy budget in FY26 is set to rise by 10-15% over the budget estimates (BE) of %2.03 lakh crore with rising grain stocks inflating economic costs of grains distributed free of cost to 810 million people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

- SANDIP DAS

The new procurement season (2025-26) for paddy purchase began earlier this month.

Sources told FE the Food Corporation of India (FCI), through which over 70% subsidies are routed, has revised upward the projected expenditure from %1.4 lakh crore (budget estimate) to €1.7 lakh crore for 2025-26.

For FY26, the corporation has so far received 75,921 crore, or 53% of its annual food subsidy allocation as perthe BE from the finance ministry.

In addition, the ministry has provided ¢ 50,000 crore as wage and means advance which has to be repaid by the corporation by March 31, 2026.