Business: Central government faces a loss of Rs 69,000 crore every year due to flaws in free ration distribution.

To provide relief to the poor, the government has established a public distribution system of food grains. To ensure that the poor get adequate food, food grains are given to 80 crore beneficiaries under the free ration scheme by the government.

But now a report has come out which is very shocking. According to the report, 28 percent of the food grains distributed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state governments do not reach the right beneficiaries. Due to this chaos, the government treasury suffers a loss of Rs 69,000 crore. The most shocking thing was that Gujarat is one of the top 3 states in the country in terms of deficiencies in the public distribution system. In this case, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland along with Gujarat are among the top 3 states. An economic think tank has done an expose on the matter and the expose paper also points out that there is an urgent need to address the shortcomings in the public distribution system. After this shocking revelation of the think tank, the biggest question that has arisen is that 28 percent of the food grains do not reach the poor under the public distribution system, then where does this amount of food grains go? This question demands experts. Said a thorough investigation. Despite the implementation of digital tracking system, the illegal business of grabbing food grains from the poor continues.

Analyzing monthly procurement data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) and FCI between August 2022 and July 2023, the think tank's paper estimated that 20 million tonnes of rice and wheat do not reach their actual beneficiaries. Due to which the government faces a loss of Rs 69,000 crore annually. Then in which direction this quantity of grains goes is a matter of investigation. An economic expert said, it could be that this quantity of grain is being traded in the open market or is being exported repeatedly.

The newspaper further said that the leakage of 20 million tonnes of wheat and rice caused a huge financial burden. This figure is Rs 69,108 crore. That means the government treasury gets hit by this much amount. However, this figure marks a significant improvement compared to the 46 per cent leakage recorded in financial year 2011-12. Indeed, a recent report shows that a large amount of free-subsidized food grains are still not reaching the intended beneficiaries. It was also told in the paper that the report of the panel appointed by the government in 2015 in this matter has also been rejected. The paper also said that Point of Sale (POS) machines installed at ration shops in 2016 have helped in reducing the gap between the movement of grains but grain leakage is still at significant levels.

Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Gujarat are among the top three states in the country in terms of public distribution deficit. Then the biggest reason for the lack of this system in the North-Eastern state is the flaws in digitalization. Bihar and East Bengal are states that have achieved significant improvement in PDS leakage in the last decade. The PDS leakage rate in Uttar Pradesh is estimated at 33 percent. As noted in the paper, Uttar Pradesh tops the list in terms of specific quantity of grain leaked. Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra have very high rates of siphoning. Where it is often seen that the quantity of grains is sent to the open market.