For more than 20 months now, the union government has been providing additional free ration to 80 crore beneficiaries of the NFSA to tide over the effect of the pandemic. While it has been spending increased amounts on NFSA, the allocations for Mid-Day meal schemes & ICDS have reduced considerably in 2022-23. In the earlier story, we reviewed the Union government’s budget allocation for a few major central schemes – MGNREGA, NSAP & PM-KISAN, to understand the pre & post-pandemic trends. The government used these schemes to provide livelihood support & direct financial support to the marginalised sections of the population during the pandemic. In this story, we review a few other major schemes providing support to marginalised sectors, especially around food security. Actual Expenditure towards Food subsidy in 2020-21 was more than Rs. 5.41 lakh crores. Provision of food grains under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was one of the key support schemes initiated by the Union government to provide relief during the pandemic. The scheme was part of the first set of measures announced by the government in March 2020 after the onset of the pandemic in the country. The scheme was initially launched for the period April-June 2020, which was later extended multiple times. As per the latest announcement, the scheme is extended until March 2022. Under this scheme, additional 5 kgs of Rice/Wheat per month is provided free of cost to 80 crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries. The latest extension is the fifth phase of PMGKAY. As per the latest update provided by the union government, during the four Phases, the total allocation of food grains to the States & UTs was almost 600 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT), which was worth Rs. 2.07 lakh crores. During the fifth phase, i.e., December 2021 to March 2022, the estimated additional food subsidy is around Rs. 53.34 thousand crores for around 163 LMT. The supply of the food grains to the states is done by the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The union government subsidizes FCI on the cost incurred for the supply of food grains under NFSA. It must be noted that PMGKAY provided additional food grains during the pandemic, and the provision of subsidized foodgrains under NFSA was already in place. As per the data provided in the 2022-23 budget, the actual expenditure on food subsidy to FCI during 2020-21 was Rs. 4.62 lakh crores. This is higher than the revised estimate of Rs. 3.44 lakh crores, which in turn is much higher than the budget estimate made before the pandemic for Rs. 77.9 thousand crores. Although the scheme continued in 2021-22, the revised estimate for 2021-22 is around Rs. 2.10 lakh crores, as against the budget estimate of Rs. 2.02 lakh crores. For the upcoming financial year of 2022-23, the government has made a budget allocation of Rs. 1.45 lakh crores. Apart from the subsidy to FCI, the government has also provided a subsidy for ‘Decentralized procurement of Foodgrains under NFSA’. The actual subsidy towards this for 2020-21, was Rs. 78.3 thousand crores. Overall, as per the information provided in the budget, the government has spent Rs. 5.41 lakh crores in 2020-21 towards food subsidy including on procurement. Apart from the increased food subsidy in the wake of the pandemic, a major change was introduced in 2021-22 about how the food subsidy is represented in the budget. The FCI is mandated to procure food grains from the farmers. It stores them and distributes them at subsidized rates under the Public Distribution System (PDS). The loss incurred by FCI in procurement & distribution was compensated to an extent through food subsidy and mostly through the borrowings from National Small Savings Fund (NSSF). In the budget for 2020-21, the Government of India proposed the discontinuation of the NSSF loan to FCI and made provisions for the same in the Budget. Since the government directly did not pay the amount to FCI prior to this change, the expenditure was underreported in the earlier budgets. From the budget of 2021-22, with the change in the accounting logic, the food subsidy to FCI is being reported as an expenditure of the government. The actual expenditure on the Mid-Day meal scheme increased during 2020-21. The Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme is aimed at providing nutritious food for School-age children. As per this scheme, nutritious cooked meals are served to the school children. In September 2021, the scheme was renamed PM-POSHAN. This is a Centrally sponsored scheme and is expected to cover 11.8 crore children in 11. 2 lakh schools. As specified, the scheme provides hot cooked meals to the children in the school premises to ensure the children get the required nutrition.