The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Food for thought in party manifestos

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Monday, May 12, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Food for thought in party manifestos

Bageshree S.

Congress promises food guarantee scheme
BJP vows to increase upper limit of income for BPL families

Bangalore: Manifestos of all political parties have one pet theme — providing sops to those in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category. They have tried to outdo one another by offering a wide range of benefits.

The Congress manifesto says that the party is committed to implementing a food guarantee scheme. It will not only give BPL cards to all eligible families within 100 days, but also provide food grains at Rs. 2 a kg if voted to power. Going a step further, the Bharatiya Janata Party has promised to increase the upper limit of income for BPL families from the present Rs. 12,000 (rural) and Rs. 17,000 (urban) a year to Rs. 30,000 (extremely poor) and Rs. 60,000 (poor) if voted to power. The “extremely poor” will get rice at Rs. 2 a kg. The Janata Dal (Secular) is offering free stoves and cooking gas to BPL families.

The process of identifying BPL families eligible for subsidy itself has been mired in controversy ever since the shift was made from the universal public distribution system to the targeted public distribution system for the poor in 1997. .

According to a census of the Food and Civil Supplies Department in 2005, 64 lakh of the 1.2 crore families in the State, are BPL. But the Centre pegs the number of BPL families at 31.29 lakh and allocates them grains from the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The difference between the two is categorised as extra below poverty line (EBPL). Providing subsidised grains to people of this category is a burden on the State Government, which adds up to Rs. 750 crore a year. This may go up by another Rs. 250 crore if grains have to be provided at Rs. 2 a kg, and the number of beneficiaries scale up. In March this year, eight States including Karnataka sought additional foodgrains from the Centre for the EBPL population. In contrast, the Planning Commission said that the percentage of BPL population had come down to 27.5 per cent in 2004-05 from 36 per cent in 1993-94. There is constantly pressure on all States to reduce the number of beneficiaries under PDS in keeping with the overall policy of reducing subsidies.

In stark contrast, the Arjun Gupta Sen Gupta Parliamentary Committee report said that more than 77 per cent of the population in the country earns less than Rs. 30 a day, an indication of the extent of poverty. Interestingly, no party manifesto has criticised the targeted food distribution system and revert to universal subsidy. In fact, the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2002, warrants a cap on subsidies whichever party comes to power.

Medium-term Fiscal Plan for the years between 2008 and 2012 makes an interesting projection on allocation for subsidies for food, transport, housing and industry.

While the Budget estimate for subsidies for 2007-08 stood at Rs. 2,517 crore, the revised estimate was Rs. 1,227 crore. Projections for the following years show a steady decline in allocation: 2008-09 (Rs. 1,222 crore); 2009-10 (Rs. 1,114 crore); 2010-11 (Rs. 1,110 crore); and 2011-12 (Rs. 1,108 crore).

In such a scenario, can any manifesto be effective without an overall policy change?

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