National Food Security Bill (NFSB) may cost 1.23 Lakh Crores to the Exchequer, says Government

National Food Security Bill, the flagship program of Government of India, was estimated to cost around 1.23 Lakh Crore Rupees to the Governments exchequer.

The Bill ensures to provide legal entitlement to food for around 67% population of the country. The estimated annual requirement of food grains, according to 2011 population, is 60.74 million tonnes and the corresponding cost of this subsidy is around Rs.1,23,084 Crore. Since, these are the estimates the final requirements may vary after framing the final Bill and the time by which it comes into force.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had allocated Rs 77,740 crore as food subsidy in the budget estimates for the current fiscal and kept Rs 10,000 crore over and above the normal food subsidy, towards the incremental cost.

The Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in December, 2011, in which Centere had proposed 7 Kg of rice or wheat or millet a month at Rs3, Rs 2 and Re 1 per kg respectively for priority category while at least 3 kg per person per month for general households at 50 per cent of the support price.

The Bill was then referred to a Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution for examination and the committee has also given its report. Government examined the report in consultation with the states/UTs based on which the government also proposes to move some amendment to it. The proposed amendments in the Bill are mainly aimed at providing a simpler framework and more flexibility to the states besides lowering their financial burden.