TN Asks Centre to Release ₹2.6K Crore in Pending Dues

Expenses include paddy procurement, food subsidies & rice fortification

- B ANBUSELVAN @Chennai

The Tamil Nadu government has requested the union government to release pending dues amounting to ₹2,670.64 crore. These dues relate to expenses incurred by the state for paddy procurement, rice fortification, and subsidies for ragi and sugar.

Of the roughly 2.25 crore ration cards in Tamil Nadu, the cost of supplying rice through the Public Distribution System (PDS) to 1.12 crore cards (covering 3.6 crore beneficiaries) is fully borne by the centre under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Of the total outstanding dues of ₹2,670.64 crore, a sum of ₹2,181.88 crore has been carried over from the financial years 2016-17 to 2020-21. Additionally, ₹431.55 crore is pending as subsidy for ration cards that were migrated within Tamil Nadu during the same period.