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?Food subsidy should not be linked with fiscal deficit?

Emphasising that the money involved in giving food subsidy should be treated as high priority, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday said the subsidy should not be linked with fiscal deficit.

Emphasising that the money involved in giving food subsidy should be treated as high priority, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Friday said the subsidy should not be linked with fiscal deficit.

?The money involved in food subsidy can be treated as high priority and should not be linked with fiscal deficit. The food subsidy bill can be met. I see no merit in subsidising diesel. We can’t subsidise petrol and fertilizers and these are the subsidies that we need to get rid of,? Ahluwalia said at a panel discussion at IIT, Delhi.

The statement assumes significance as it comes a day after food minister KV Thomas said that the country needed an additional R20,000 crore for its proposed food security Bill, aimed at ensuring subsidised grain for the poor.

The Bill is set to be introduced in the Budget session of Parliament which begins on February 21. The food subsidy Bill for the current fiscal year was R1 lakh crore.

On the other hand, the country’s fiscal deficit is expected to reach 5.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of March.

?The malnutrition rate in India is 46% and should be 33-35%. Globally, it is difficult to reduce it to less than 20%. We could have maternity benefits cash transfers or conditional cash transfers wherein the child needs to get immunised also,? he added. On malnutrition, economist and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen said: ?We need a good Aadhaar for the identification of the beneficiaries.?

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First published on: 16-02-2013 at 02:40 IST
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