Central assistance to states/UTs raised to meet fair price shops’ increased costs

New Delhi, May 25 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Department of Food and Public Distribution on Wednesday said it has revised the norms of Central assistance paid to states/UTs for meeting the expenditure towards intra-state movement, handling of food grains and margins paid to fair price shop dealers under National Food Security Act, 2013.

The revised norms of central assistance - issued vide notification dated May 23 - will be applicable from April 1 to those state governments and Union Territories that comply with the reforms specified in section l2 and the directions given by the Central government from time to time.

The intra-state transportation cost has increased from Rs 65 per quintal to Rs 70 per quintal for general category states, Fair Price Shop dealers' margin has increased from Rs 70 per quintal to Rs 90 per quintal, additional margin from Rs 17 to Rs 21 while the same for NE states, Himalayan states, and island territories has been increased from Rs 100 to Rs 105, Rs 143 to Rs 180, and Rs 17 to Rs 26 respectively.

The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013 provides for central assistance to the states/Union Territories on intra-state transportation and Fair Price Shop dealers margin so that these costs do not get passed on to the beneficiary in the way of higher prices and the uniformity of prices envisaged under the Act is maintained. These norms were first fixed in 2015.

The norms of central assistance were to be revisited after three years of commencement of the NFSA Act, 2013 and these norms now have been revised with the approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

The enhanced rate of central assistance will improve the viability of more than 5 Lakh Fair Price Shops across the country, the government said.

Source: IANS