I lose sleep over food subsidy bill, says Pranab

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said that the country needs “massive investment” in agriculture to increase food production.

“We need (a) second generation of green revolution,” Mukherjee said, adding that he “lose(s) sleep when I think of the subsidy bill”.

The central government recently passed the Food Security Bill that is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 1 trillion annually, a number that has been disputed by some experts who say it could go higher than that.

Mukherjee was speaking at the start of a two-day conference of state food and agriculture ministers meant to iron out differences over the National Food Security Bill.

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who was also at the event, said that his “only concern is whether the existing mechanism is compatible enough with the spirit of this Act”.

The bill seeks to cover up to 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of urban households and proposes the right to 7 kg food grain per person -- at Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for coarse grains to the priority below poverty line (BPL) beneficiaries.

The general category (above poverty line or APL) beneficiaries will get at least 3 kg of ration per person per month at half the minimum support price (MSP) of grains.

However, the bill has been criticized by state chief ministers like J. Jayalalithaa (Tamil Nadu), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Mayawati (Uttar Pradesh) and Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal).

Besides asking the central government to share cost of implementing the various schemes under the bill, the states are also demanding autonomy in deciding the number of beneficiaries.