The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ms. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today informed that, the Phase VII of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was in operation upto 31.12.2022. The Central Government, to remove the financial burden of the poor beneficiaries and to ensure nationwide uniformity and effective implementation of NFSA, has decided to provide food grains free of cost to AAY households and PHH beneficiaries under NFSA, 2013, for a period of one year, beginning from 1st Jan 2023.

The Government has decided to distribute foodgrains to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act, 2013 free of cost for a period of one year from 1st January, 2023.

The name of the new integrated scheme subsuming two current food subsidy schemes of the Department of Food and Public Distribution- a) Food Subsidy to FCI for NFSA, and b) Food Subsidy for decentralized procurement states, dealing with procurement, allocation and delivery of free foodgrains to the states under NFSA - has since been finalized as Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan AnnaYojana (PMGKAY).

Under the PMGKAY (Phase I to VII), the entire expenditure towards food subsidy, intra-State movement & handling of foodgrains and fair price shop dealers’ margin were borne by the Central Government.

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