NEW DELHI: A parliamentary panel has raised concerns about the substantial unpaid dues of various government departments to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to run assorted social welfare schemes. According to the standing committee on consumer affairs, ministries including rural development and external affairs had dues payable to FCI worth over Rs 15000 crore till the end of December, 2024.
These dues are hitting FCI’s operations, even as the finance ministry in recent years has been prompt in releasing the food subsidy which is largely routed through the FCI.
“The prolonged delay in settling these dues is detrimental to the efficient functioning of the food distribution system and undermines the financial management,” the parliamentary panel said in report tabled in the Lok Sabha..
The panel has recommended that the department of food take immediate and effective action to recover the outstanding dues from the relevant ministries without further delay.
While according to the panel report, dues payable to FCI was over Rs 15000 crore till the end of
Some of the heads under which departments owe money to FCI include mid-day meal scheme, as well as the scheme to provide food grains to Afghanistan and the running of canteens for the armed forces.
“These arrears have accumulated over time, and the Committee is concerned that the recovery of these outstanding payments has remained an unresolved matter for an extended period,” according to the panel report.
In response the FCI has stated that the lifting of the quantity of food grains by various ministries or departments under other social welfare categories and reimbursement of amount against such quantity is a continuous process. “The real time data may keep on changing from time to time,” according to the report
In FY24, the finance ministry under the revised estimate, has allocated Rs 2454 crore which was equivalent to outstandings with rural development ministry towards supply of foodgrains to them by FCI under erstwhile food for work scheme or Sampoorn Grameen Rozgar Yojana.
More than 70% of the centre’ food subsidy budget is allocated to FCI for carrying out the activities of procurement of foodgrains under the minimum support price (MSP) operations from farmers and distributing them to states for the free ration scheme.
In FY25, as per the revised estimate out of the total food subsidy budget of Rs 2.03 lakh crore, Rs 1.32 lakh crore had been allocated to FCI.
FCI procures, store and distribute around 75 million tonne (MT) of foodgrains – rice and wheat annually.
Officials said that the finance ministry has been releasing expenses towards food subsidy timely in the last couple of fiscal years, which has ensured that corporations mostly don’t rely on short-term loans and cash credit limits as being provisioned.
To bridge cash-flow mismatch, there is a provision for FCI to avail short term loan with a tenure of 90 days upto Rs 75,000 crore at any given point of time. The annual rate of interest charged by designated banks ranges between 6.98% to 7.36% per annum.
Officials said out of total borrowing of FCI at Rs 39,360 crore by the end of December, FY25, a major chunk includes Rs 36,700 crore worth of bonds which are payable during 2028-30 in parts.
Source: The Financial Express
Insurance Bill To Allow 100% FDI May Be Deferred To Monsoon Session 