Centre to decide on extending free ration PMGKAY scheme beyond September

The recent data on food inflation informs us that the rise in prices of food items grew by 7.2% year on year in August 2022. Inflation is burdening households under financial stress and amid such indicators, Central Government will decide whether to extend the free ration scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna (PMGKAY). The Secretary of the Food Ministry Sudhanshu Pandey informed about the ongoing consideration, but he didn't elaborate upon the date of the decision.

As the country was under strict lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government at the Centre decided to launch PMGKAY in March 2020 to provide free 5 kg food grains per person per month to about 80 crore beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).

The scheme was intended to reduce the hardships during the pandemic as people were devoid of economic opportunities during the pandemic. The allocation of grains was also over and above the general allocation under the NFSA.

Initially, the scheme was launched for three months, but as the pandemic and economic slump continued, the scheme was extended multiple times. "The government has to decide," Pandey told reporters when asked about the extension of the PMGKAY scheme.

"These are big government decisions... the government will take a call on it," he said when asked about the view of the food ministry.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the annual general meeting of the Roller Flour Millers' Federation of India.

Multiple Extensions

The scheme was introduced for a period starting from March 2020 till June 2020. The first extension came in June 2020 and the scheme was extended till November 2020.

As the cases and fatalities due to Covid-19 subsided during the first few months of 2021, the schemes were kept in abeyance. As the virus started raising its head again around April, the government reintroduced the scheme from April 2021 to June 2021.

As the second wave of the pandemic was more devastating, the government has to extend the scheme till November 2021 and further to March 2022.

In March 2022, after much deliberations, the Centre again extended the PMGKAY till September 2022 at the cost of ₹80,000.

The total expenditure under PMGKAY (from March 2020 to September 2022) has touched nearly ₹3.40 lakh crore.

Till the last extension, the government has allotted 1000 lakh tones of food grains under the PMGKAY.