India to fix biggest subsidy schemes - food & LPG - that cost Rs 4 lk cr a year
NITI Aayog will soon undertake the evaluation of India’s biggest subsidy schemes, the National Food Security Act and LPG subsidy, to rationalise expenditure, prevent leakage and ensure benefits are reaching the eligible candidates.
The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office, which is an attached office of NITI Aayog, has invited proposals for a central coordinating agency for evaluation of the two schemes, which together cost the exchequer nearly Rs 4,00,000 crore a year.
“The government implements one the largest public food and nutritional safety nets in the world through the National Food Security Act (NFSA), enacted in 2013.
However, despite the large public expenditure, gains in the food security and nutritional outcomes in India have been slow with the country accounting for roughly 30% of the global burden of hunger,” the DMEO said in the RFP document.
Explaining the rationale behind evaluation of the LPG subsidy, the DMEO further said that India is the third largest energy consumer in the world after China and the USA. “The current consumption of LPG in India has risen to 12.3% of total petroleum products compared to 1.13% of kerosene.
