Centre Clarifies On Odisha’s Pending Food Subsidy Bill, Says Rs 3,0285 Cr Released In 4 Yrs

Bhubaneswar: The Centre on Tuesday issued a clarification on the Odisha government’s claim that food subsidy bill amounting to Rs 14,249 crore was still pending with the former.

The Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD) of the Centre, in a release, said it has the mandate of implementing National Food Security Act, 2013 for ensuring food security to about 80 crore beneficiaries of the country. To meet the fund requirements of the state government for implementation of the scheme, DFPD releases food subsidy to States.

For this purpose, specific MoUs are signed with respective state governments and the states are required to adhere to the conditions laid down in the MoU. The entitled amount of food subsidy is calculated on the basis of extant guidelines, provisional cost sheets, opening and closing balance of stocks, procurement, allocation and distribution of food grains under NFSA & other welfare schemes, FCI reconciliation and utilisation certificates.

The DFPD has been regularly releasing the admissible food subsidy to Odisha government as per MOU signed with the state. The DFPD reimburses expenditure of the state government incurred on distribution of food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)/Other Welfare Schemes (OWS) upto 95% of variable cost and upto 100% of fixed cost. The food subsidy is released after deducting the inferior quantity of food grains as indicated by the inspection team of DFPD/FCI.

For the last four years, all states are updating their distribution data on Annavitran Portal and accordingly, submitting their subsidy claims duly reconciled with the portal’s data. Certain amounts are withheld temporarily by the Department because of reasons like difference in distribution figures claimed by state government vis a vis as available on Annavitran Portal, non-submission of audited accounts for finalisation thereof, quality related matters etc. This is a uniform approach adopted for all the states.

During the last four years, Rs 3,0285.92 crore has been released to Odisha government. Recently, an amount of Rs 2,084.90 crore was released to the state, the department said.