A latest news report says that only 37% money under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi yojana have been distributed in the first seven months of the current financial year.
Out of the total allocation of Rs 75,000 crore for the year 2019-20, around Rs 27,937.26 crore has been spent until last month. As the current financial year will end in next 5 months, it is expected that a huge amount of money under the PM-KISAN scheme will remain unspent.
It must be noted that the PM-Kisan scheme ensures minimum income support to all eligible farmers through direct transfer in their bank accounts. Under PM-Kisan scheme, Government aims to give Rs 6,000 to eligible farmers every year in 3 equal quarterly instalments of Rs 2,000 each.
Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Agriculture and farmer’s Welfare in the Lok Sabha, said that “So far, out of an allocated amount of Rs 75,000 crore for 2019-20, Rs 27,937.26 crore has been used up to 31 October 2019 that includes administrative expenses given to the states.”
Though the agri minister did not specify the reason for the slow distribution, he said PM-Kisan yojana is a “continuous & ongoing scheme” where monetary benefits were being transferred to the beneficiaries as and when their information was being verified & uploaded by state governments on PM-Kisan official website.
According to Indian Express Tomar said, “Therefore, the actual use of funds may differ depending upon the variation in the number of beneficiaries (farmers). The actual fund position will be ascertained by reconciliation after the end of 2019-20”.
Tomar also mentioned that the numbers are estimated according to operational land holdings projections of Agri-Census Data 2015-16. But, the data does not incorporate joint land holdings. Thus, the number of beneficiaries can increase or decrease. He said, “The onus lies with the state or UT governments to identify the beneficiaries & upload their details on the PM-Kisan portal".
To recall, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the PM-KISAN scheme on 1st February in the Interim Union Budget 2019-20. Modi said that the scheme will be executed retrospectively from 1st December 2018.
At that point, the Centre had set aside Rs 20,000 crore for the yojana through revised estimates from the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. However, the Agri Minister informed the Lok Sabha in June that out of the total Rs 20,000 crore, only Rs. 6,662 crore was given to the beneficiaries as 1st instalment in the last financial year.
The media report also mentioned the minister's latest response to point out that against the initial estimate of 14.5 beneficiaries, only 50% - 7.26 crore farmers have been benefited from PM-Kisan so far.
