Eyeing assembly polls, Modi govt plans bigger things under PM-KISAN scheme

PM-KISAN could be the second Modi govt's marquee scheme

Convinced that Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana or (PM-KISAN) has made some impact in assuaging farmers' anger on account of falling prices, the Narendra Modi government is planning bigger things for the flagship programme.

The recent Cabinet decision to expand PM-KISAN to cover all farmers, irrespective of the size of land held by them, is just one of the several steps in the offing. Under the scheme, the Centre promises to give Rs 6,000 per year to all farmers in three equal installments.

Initially, only small and marginal farmers were to be covered, but this was later expanded to include an estimated 145 million farmers.

Officials said that a database generated through the scheme could henceforth form the bedrock of all transfers that the Centre plans to make to farmers.

Gradually, over a period of time, there are plans to use the same to map the total amount of Central subsidy that each farmer avails -- on seeds, farm machines and equipment, and even fertilizers.

Perhaps, a reason why the Central government is pushing states hard to enroll maximum farmers in the shortest possible time.  

For Opposition-ruled states such as West Bengal, which haven’t join the scheme so far, the Centre is regularly sending communication through official channels urging it to join the scheme in the interest of farmers.

“We are getting calls from farmers asking us as to how they can join the scheme, but unless state government does the needful, we are helpless,” a senior agriculture ministry official said.

Few days back, Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan expressed their intention to participate in the scheme after dithering for months.

“A special dashboard is being created with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC) in the Central government which would help fetch all farmer details at just one click,” a senior official said. 

To begin with, the database generated through PM-KISAN would be extensively used to target beneficiaries under Prime Minister’s Farmers Pension Scheme, under which the government plans to provide a fixed monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to growers after they attain the age of 60.

Of the 145 million plus farmers in the country, the government plans to target around 80 million who fall in the age-group of 18-40 years through the pension scheme.

A minimum premium of Rs 100 per month has been fixed for the farmers, while the Central government will share an equal amount.

“As we get more and more details of farmers through PM-KISAN we would approach them with the pension scheme as it is beneficial for their long-term welfare,” the official commented.

The farmers will be given an option to offset their PM-KISAN allocation against the premium for PM Pension scheme, but only if they give their consent.

That apart, there is also talk of raising the payout under PM-KISAN to Rs 8,000 per annum from the existing Rs 6,000 at a later stage in a phased manner. But, nothing has been formalised on this so far.

The proposal has also found support from some quarters.

State Bank of India's Group Chief Economic Advisor, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, in a research note said that the Government must make a statement of intent in the coming full budget to increase the income support under PM-KISAN from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 over a period of five years. 

"This will provide a feel-good factor and boost consumer sentiment. Our calculations suggest that even if we progressively increase the income support from, say, Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 in the terminal year (inflation indexed) and reduce the fiscal deficit to three per ceny in 2024, the additional cost for 14 crore (140 million) farmers over the baseline estimates could be Rs 12,000 crore per annum, same as the revised estimates if only Rs 6,000 was provided to all 14 crore during the next five years,"  Ghosh said in the note.

Meanwhile, to make funds available for the expanded version of PM-KISAAN, now expected to cost over Rs 87,000 crore annually, up from the earlier estimated Rs 75,000 crore in the 2019-20 interim budget, officials said the government might rely on budgetary allocation in the near future.

But, later it plans to subsume some of the existing programmes and schemes of the Union Agriculture Ministry to free up funds for PM-KISAN.

“Several Central schemes and programmes for the agriculture sector which have run their course and achieved the targeted objective could be concluded to free up funds for PM-KISAN so that there is no extra pressure on the budgetary allocation,” the official said.

Given the political importance of PM-KISAN, officials said special attention is being given to enrollment of farmers in the poll-bound states of Haryana and Maharashtra. Assembly elections are due in the next few months in these two states, in which the incumbent BJP will face the Congress and its allies.

Farmers can directly call the helpline mentioned in the PM-KISAN website for registration.

“We are even talking to district officials, patwaris and lekhpals (local officials who maintain record of farm land and crop production) directly from Delhi to ensure that at no level there is any bottleneck in registration under PM-KISAN and sorting out any problem,” the official added.

A special war room has been created in the ministry of agriculture to monitor PM-KISAN and the pension scheme. It is manned by trained professionals and senior officials to ensure that grievances are addressed quickly.

Moving forward, as the Narendra Modi government gets going in its second term, there are all indications that PM-KISAN could be one of its single biggest marquee initiatives through which it plans to pass on benefit to farmers. 

States	Projected Holding (2018-19) in million
UP	24.37
Bihar	17.0
Maharashtra	15.10
Madhya Pradesh	10.80
Karnataka	9.08
Andhra Pradesh	9.06
Rajasthan	8.21
Kerala	7.84
West Bengal	7.35
Total	151.11

NOTE: Total might not match as all states haven’t been included. The actual number of beneficiaries could be lower as there are eligibility conditions for enrolling under PM-KISAN.

SOURCE: Government and officials