PMGKY

The income tax department will share data with the Food Ministry to weed out ineligible beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). Under the PMGKAY, free ration is provided to poor families who do not pay income tax. The government has budgeted Rs 2.03 lakh crore towards PMGKAY in FY26, higher than Rs 1.97 lakh crore in the revised estimates for the current fiscal. In an office order, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said the Director General of Income Tax (Systems) will be the authority to furnish information to the Joint Secretary Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. As per the sharing mechanism, DFPD shall furnish the Aadhaar Number or PAN along with the Assessment Year(s) to DGlT (Systems), New Delhi. If the PAN is provided or the provided Aadhaar is linked with PAN, DGIT (Systems), New Delhi shall furnish the response to DFPD regarding the threshold income as per the I-T department ...

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 4 announced the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana scheme for another five years

"Economic life hasn't returned to normal. Stopping PMGKAY now will affect the poor and their chance to get their lives back to normalcy after the pandemic"

If PMGKAY was continued beyond December 2022, at least Rs 40,000 crore would have got spent for three months (Jan to March)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a call on extending the PMGKAY scheme to provide free ration to the poor beyond December, Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje said on Thursday said stressing that the government has sufficient foodgrains stock. If Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) has to be extended, the decision will be taken by the Cabinet, headed by the prime minister. The Cabinet meeting is scheduled on Friday. In September, the government had extended PMGKAY for three months till December 31. "Covid-19 cases are coming. The scheme is till December. ...After that, the decision (on extending it) will be taken by the prime minister," Karandlaje, Minister of State for Agriculture, told reporters. In last 28 months, the government has spent Rs 1.80 lakh crore on distribution of free ration to the poor under PMGKAY, she said. The government has sufficient foodgrains stock to meet the requirement under the food security law and other welfare schemes, she added. The

The retail inflation rate in wheat rose to 19.67 per cent in November from 17.64 per cent in October

"The food subsidy burden is already crossing Rs 3 trillion and we are hopeful that it will be brought down below that mark," said a senior government official

Centre's foodgrains stock managed by the Food Corporation of India remains 66% higher than the buffer norm

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Amid concerns raised by the Finance Ministry over continuation of PMGKAY till December 2022 owing to inadequate food grains and extra burden on the exchequer, Govt claimed that it has sufficient stock

Extension of PMGKAY should have been avoided

Office memorandum flagged fiscal concerns due to impact of Ukraine war on fuel prices. With Covid-19 having largely subsided, reasons for which earlier extensions were given no more seem to hold

In several states, farmers have already moved on to other short-duration crops such as pulses and coarse cereals abandoning paddy

Nearly 20 lakh tonnes of foodgrains have been distributed for free so far to eligible beneficiaries under the fifth phase of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).

At a time like this when the poor are barely beginning to get their household economy together, any weakening of their twin lifelines - free rations and MNREGA - would be grossly insensitive