INDIAN FOOD SECURITY IN COMA-REVIVAL A CHALLENGE
Food Security Act (ACT) of 2013 is in comatose state.
On the election eve, neither UPA nor NDA is eulogizing Right to Food. The
fact being that the ACT is a doctrine of “paper entitlements” without committed
obligation in the real sense, except, for the Government to perform on best
efforts basis. It does not empower people for food—it simply raises their
expectation from the Government to deliver food under the 50-year archaic
public distribution system (PDS), where 45-50% leakages are officially
acknowledged. The complainant who is deprived of entitlement can take
circuitous legal route—that is all.
The pertinent
question is -- can anti- reform policies be lauded as reform because it suits
vote bank politics and subsidy is hiked from about Rs 90000 crores to about
2.5-3 lakh crores annually (about 3% of GDP) to cover about 70% of population. Rice/wheat/maize are
to be distributed at “fixed” prices of Rs 3/2/1 pkg, that is, 90% of the
current economic cost. If about 3% of GDP is consumed by food subsidy,
expansionary fiscal deficit is sure to hurt growth. It will be a major
challenge for the new Government to put tangible food reforms in action.
After 35 days of its active existence, the ACT was
deferred till October 2014(for one year) due to lack of readiness of list of
beneficiaries by States. Meanwhile states are busy appointing mostly retired
bureaucrats as Chairpersons of “State Food Commissions” and other officers for
its implementation. This is yet another expensive paraphernalia of burgeoning
bureaucracy with doubtful utility. UPA repeatedly claims RTI (Right to
Information) its far-reaching attainment but the same tag of prominence is not
applied to this ACT. It may have had noble intentions—but far from practical in
implementation. The slogan of feeding hungry carries little appeal because hunger statistically is
less than 1%--though malnutrition, sanitation, clean water, educations, medicines,
health are prime concerns of the poor. Elections of Delhi State
were the first litmus test for failure of the ACT.
Saner economic advice of eminent socio-political
commentators remained unheeded by UPA2. For last five years (2009-14).
Government has been building up massive inventories of grains-- 70-80 million
tons—(20-30 million tons more than required) for servicing this ACT, without
the ACT being in place. Lavish bonuses on wheat and paddy gifted by Madhya
Pradesh and Chhattisgarh-- both BJP ruled states-- for political populism and
heavy local taxation of 12-14% levied by Punjab Government, an ally of BJP,
cannot be supported.
Apart from lack of storage and unhygienic roof
coverings, the ACT will suck huge tonnages in official stocks, crowd out
private trade and inflate market prices. Media reports suggest that economic
pundits like Jagdish Bhagwati/Arvind Panagariya, both of Columbia University of
USA, who favor conditional cash transfers, reportedly guide NDA/BJP. Will this
be implemented?
Opium of subsidies once dispensed cannot be withdrawn
without violent side effects. Finally anarchism prevails. Thai paddy pledging
scheme (bonus on paddy) is the case in point where country’s once vibrant
economy is brought to its knees.
In WTO’s Bali conference of December 2013 India got a
reprieve for four years-- till 2017--to harmonize subsidies with WTO agenda,
subject to extensive reporting forthwith on full transparency in domestic
support for food security purposes. India has yet to comply by that
obligation. There is no doubt that ACT in
its present form will distort the world trade as more grains will be diverted
to bazaar due to greater greed of arbitrage between official and market prices,
lowering export prices. In years of shortages, massive Government imports will
make world markets tizzy with rocketing prices.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment