Free foodgrain scheme for poor extended by one year

New Delhi, December 23

In a major decision, the government today announced that beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) will get free foodgrains until December 2023.

It, however, decided not to extend the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) from January 1, 2023, which was specially designed to support the poor amid the pandemic.

Briefing media on the decisions of the Union Cabinet, which met here under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister for Consumers Affairs, Food and Public distribution Piyush Goyal, said beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), who were getting foodgrains at highly subsidised rates, would get free foodgrains until December 2023.

Terming the decision as a “New Year’s gift for the country’s poor”, the minister said over 80 crore people in the country would benefit from the decision. “From January onwards, the beneficiaries of the NFSA, who were getting rice at Rs 3 per kg and wheat at Rs 2 per kg, will not have to pay a single penny to get grains for the next one year,” he said.

Under the NFSA, people get five kg of foodgrains per person per month while the poor families covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) get 35 kg of foodgrains per month.

Anna yojana

The minister said that Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which was started to help poor to battle Covid-19 in April 2020, would be discontinued from January 1, 2023. The scheme was recently extended until December 2022

MSP for copra fixed

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for Copra — dried and white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted for the 2023 season. The approval has been given on recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and views of the major coconut growing states. The MSP for fair average quality of milling copra has been fixed at Rs 10,860 per quintal and for ball copra at Rs 11,750 per quintal for the 2023 season.