PRADHAN MANTRI GARIB KALYAN ANNA YOJANA (PMGKAY)

• The Union government has extended the Pradhan MantriGaribKalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for another three months from October 1.
• This will allow beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act to continue to get five kg of food grains per person per month till December 31.
• The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday. This would help the poor and vulnerable sections in the festive season, the Centre said.
• The scheme has been in operation since April 2020.
• Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Bank of Baroda, said the impact of the decision on fiscal deficit would be marginal.
• Stocks of rice and wheat are at 49 million tonnes as of September, one of the lowest stock since 2017
• Free good grains at 5 kg per person per month for all the beneficiaries of NFSA will be continued till December, 2022
• At a time when the world is battling with the effects of Covid on its decline and insecurity due to various reasons, India has been successfully maintaining food security for its vulnerable sections while taking necessary steps to keep availability and affordability for common man.
• Recognising that people have gone through a difficult period of pandemic, Govt has decided to extend PMGKAY for a period of three months
• so that  poor and vulnerable sections of society  are supported for the forthcoming major festivals like Navratri, Dussehra, Milad-un-nabi, Deepawali, Chhathpooja, Gurunanak dev Jayanti, Christmas, etc. which they can celebrate  with great gaiety and community for festivities
• With a view to ensuring this, Govt. has approved this extension of PMGKAY for three months, so that they continue to enjoy the benefits of easy availability of foodgrains without any financial distress.
• Under this welfare scheme, 5 kg of food grain per person per month is provided free of cost for all the beneficiaries covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA)
• [Antodaya Anna Yojana& Priority Households] including those covered under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
• Financial implication for the Government of India has been about  Rs. 3.45 Lakh Crore  upto Phase-VI of PMGKAY.
• With the additional expenditure of about Rs. 44,762 Crore for Phase-VII of this scheme, the overall expenditure of PMGKAY will be about Rs. 3.91 lakh crore for all the phases.

The total outgo in terms of food grains for PMGKAY Phase VII is likely to be about 122 LMT. The aggregate allocation of food grain for phases I- VII is about 1121 LMT.

So far, PMGKAY has been in operation for 25 months as under

1. Phase I and II ( 8 months) : April’20 to Nov.’20
2. Phase-III to V (11 months) : May’21 to March’22
3. Phase-VI    ( 6 months)  : April’22 to Sept.’22

• PM GaribKalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY), started during difficult time of COVID-19 crisis, has provided food security to the poor, needy and the vulnerable households/beneficiaries so that they do not suffer on account of non-availability of adequate foodgrains.
• Effectively it has doubled the quantity of monthly foodgrains entitlements being normally delivered to beneficiaries.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT