Govt keeps `60k-cr budget intact for PM-Kisan Samman

In a first, the government has decided not to revise the budgetary estimate of Rs60,000 crore for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman for 2023-24 fiscal. The fact that this is the lowest allocation in the last five years and suggests that the Central government has largely succeeded in weeding out non-deserving beneficiaries.

The government has been working to identify and remove fake welfare beneficiaries across schemes, official sources told Bizz Buzz, adding that the genuine PM-Kisan beneficiaries have been almost completely identified.

PM-Kisan was launched from December-March 2018-19. Under the scheme, the government provides Rs6,000 to the eligible beneficiary farmer families in a year, the amount getting transferred in their bank accounts in three equal four-monthly installments of Rs2,000 each. It is important to highlight the fact that 2019-20, the allocation for PM-Kisan has been revised every fiscal, both upwards and downwards. In 2022-23, the revised estimate came down to Rs60,000 crore from the budgetary estimate of Rs68,000 crore.

By weeding out fake beneficiaries across welfare schemes, the government has reportedly been able to save Rs18,000 crore this fiscal. The Central government anticipates has been working with States to verify the targeting of beneficiaries of fertilizer subsidies, PM-Kisan, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

As much as Rs9,000 crore can be saved from the PM Kisan scheme alone this fiscal, for more than 1.7 crore duplicate or ineligible farmers the benefits have been removed from the database.

There is another drive underway to check the diversion of subsidized agricultural fertilizers for industrial use. For this purpose, fertilizer squads have been set up; 80,000 agrochemical bags have been seized and 30 police cases filed against the wrongdoers.

There is a very heavy subsidy on urea. The farmer gets a bag at a rate of Rs266, the subsidy being about Rs2,500 per bag.