(FE)
Despite the Narendra Modi government’s relative promptness in meeting the current demands of subsidies, at least Rs 1.25 lakh crore of past dues of major subsidies — four-fifths of that on food alone and the balance mostly on fertilisers — may remain unpaid to the designated agencies at the end of this fiscal. To that extent, the final fiscal numbers to be released in the next Budget will be dented. The 2017-18 Budget outlay for the three major explicit subsidies is Rs 2.4 lakh crore, with the share of food, fertiliser and petroleum being in a 6:3:1 ratio.
Unless the prices of foodgrains disbursed to the over 80 crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries is significantly raised — a revision is due in July 2018 — the subsidy burden can’t be mitigated, analysts say. There was not conclusive evidence yet of the electronic points of sale machines installed at fair price shops in states reducing the overall intake of NFSA grains, they noted. Of 368 lakh tonnes of grain allocated during April-November this year, 362 lakh tonnes had already been lifted by states, even as a good number of bogus ration cards were weeded out thanks to digitisation.
