Niti Aayog to evaluate food and LPG subsidy schemes
Niti Aayog will soon undertake an evaluation of India's biggest subsidy schemes, the National Food Security Act and LPG subsidy, to rationalise expenditure, prevent leakages, and ensure benefits are reaching eligible people.
Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), which is attached to Niti Aayog, has invited proposals for a central coordinating agency for evaluation of the two schemes, which together cost the exchequer nearly ₹4 lakh crore a year.
«The government implements one of 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,» DMEO said in the RFP (request for proposal) document.
Explaining the rationale behind evaluation of the LPG subsidy, the evaluation office said, «The current consumption of LPG in India has risen to 12.3% of total petroleum products compared to 1.13% of kerosene.
The ongoing schemes will potentially increase the usage of LPG further, thus, making their evaluation imperative.»
India is the third largest energy consumer in the world after China and the US.
According to DMEO, NFSA provides a legal mandate for the distribution of food grains at subsidised prices, cooked meals, take-home rations, and food security allowance through a network of schemes including the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), and Mid-Day-Meal (MDM) scheme.
The cost of implementing the food subsidy under TPDS was ₹4,22,618.11 crore as per the revised estimate for 2021.
