Food Bill: Ordinance or special session unlikely

With substantial opposition to short cuts in passage, regular Parliament discussion in coming session seems the route

The government was neither likely to promulgate an ordinance nor convene a special session of Parliament to discuss its ambitious social security scheme, the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), those in the know said today.

Officials said the government had thought of issuing an ordinance but this route was increasingly being negated because of strong opposition from a section of the ruling United Progressive Alliance. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and some others have opposed the ordinance route. Officials said the department of food, the nodal department to implement, frame and operationalise the Bill, is itself not in favour of an ordinance to implement the Bill.

They said the ministry felt all possible attempts at a consensus should be evolved before the law was implemented, as it is an important legislation. "The Bill is a result of years of hard work, numerous rounds of discussions and, hence, should not be rushed through," a senior official said.

There is no clarity on whether the ordinance issue was put before the Cabinet yesterday, as was expected. Briefing journalists after the meeting, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had initially evaded a reply on repeated queries over the ordinance. Ultimately, he had said he could not reply on what was not taken up in the Cabinet.

Even as the Cabinet meeting was on, Sushma Swaraj, leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, tweeted the Centre should not be stubborn on the contentious provisions.

Officials say the challenge is graver on the operational front, even if the Bill becomes law. They said it did not mean that people across the country would start getting cheap food as soon as the Bill was enacted. It will take some time for the actual benefits to flow, as states have to be brought on board and distribution systems strengthened. And, those who are to get the food are yet to be identified.

The Bill, expected to be the main plank of the Congress party in the 2014 national polls, is likely to come up for discussion in the monsoon session of Parliament, beginning next month. The Bill was tabled in the Budget session but could not be taken up for discussion because of pandemonium in the Lok Sabha over various scams.

The Bill promises legal entitlement for subsidised food to a little over 800 million Indians, of a total estimated population of 1,200 million. In its latest version, the Bill has undergone numerous changes since it was first tabled in Parliament on December 2011. It will provide five kg of either wheat or rice or coarse cereals per person per month at Rs 3 a kg for rice, Rs 2 a kg for wheat and Rs 1 a kg for coarse cereals.

It will also provide legal entitlement for subsidised grains or allowance to a host of other sections of the population such as pregnant women, children and the poorest among poor households, who would get 35 kg of grain a month, at the same discounted price.

The current version will require an annual food subsidy of Rs 131,000 crore, which includes Rs 8,000 crore for other incidental expenditure like setting up the national and state-level Food Commission and grievance redressal mechanisms.

In the 2013-14 Union Budget, the government allocated Rs 90,000 crore as food subsidy, of which Rs 10,000 crore was solely on account of the NFSB. The subsidy burden will escalate as and when the Bill is implemented across the country and also because the minimum support price of wheat and rice will have to increase to provide a remunerative price to farmers, while the sale price will be much lower and flat for at least three years.

BILL PROVISIONS
The food security Bill aims to give subsidised food legal entitlement to almost 800 million Indians, out of the estimated population of 1,200 million

• 67% of population to be given legal entitlement for grains
• 5 kg of wheat, rice, or coarse cereals to be supplied to each identified beneficiary a month
• Rs 2 a kg for wheat, Rs 3/kg for rice and Rs 1/kg for coarse cereals
• Rs 124,000 cr is expected subsidy burden of the Centre, from Rs 90,000 crore now, once the Bill is operational
• 60-62 million tonnes of foodgrains would be needed annually to run the programme, marginally more than the current allocations under the Targeted Public Distribution System