E-Paper
Govt refutes study on subsidised food grains, calls out ‘inaccuracies’
A “thorough analysis” of the calculations and methodology employed in the cited report was carried out, the ministry said.
A recent analysis by a team of economists that estimated a 28% leakage of subsidised food grains has “significant inaccuracies”, the government said Tuesday, disputing its findings.
Citing the analysis, this newspaper had carried a story on its findings. The Union food department said the study, led by economist Ashok Gulati of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a New Delhi-based think tank, had “significant discrepancies in data interpretation” and was therefore inaccurate.
“This department has relied on the same primary sources — data from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 — to analyse and compare distribution figures available in the public domain,” a food ministry statement said.
A “thorough analysis” of the calculations and methodology employed in the cited report was carried out, the ministry said.
There are no annual data to estimate pilferages. So, analysts rely on a national household consumption survey to estimate pilferages in the PDS.
“Offtake figures (which refer to federally-owned food grains picked up by states) should not be confused with PDS stocks used for distribution (actual consumption) in households,” the food ministry said.
The authors analysed monthly offtake data from the Food Corporation of India from August 2022 to July 2023 and aligned it with the corresponding period of the latest consumption survey (2022-23).
They then compared the “reported offtake” with “actual household consumption levels” to estimate leakages.
Consumption surveys, on which the study was based, includes cereal consumed from multiple sources, such as state-specific schemes and private purchases, which “complicates any direct correlation with PDS offtake”, the ministry said.
Offtake figures include food stocks in transit, buffer, operational reserves and cereals set aside for social-welfare schemes and commercial sales by the government. So, it shouldn’t be compared with PDS consumption, the ministry said.
The study said it had “adjusted” or accounted for these additional categories since direct state-level data is not available. The ministry did not respond to e-mailed queries on the study at the time of print.
The ministry said total annual household consumption of foodgrain is nearly 86 million tonnes if per capita consumption data are mapped to the 813 million people included in the PDS. This far exceeds the figure of 52.7 million tonnes mentioned in the study, it added.
HT reached out to Ashok Gulati, professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), for his comments but there was no immediate response by him.
