On Tuesday, 19 November, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar told the Lok Sabha that out of an allocated amount of Rs 75,000 crore for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme for the financial year 2019-20, around Rs 27,937.26 crore was spent up till 31 October.
The amount spent is only 37 percent of the total amount that was allocated for the scheme.
In a reply to a question, Tomar said, “So far, out of an allocated amount of Rs 75,000 crore for the FY 2019-20, around Rs 27,937.26 crore has been spent up to 31/10/2019, which includes Administrative Expenses given to the States. (sic)”
In a reply to another question, he said that the financial benefits of the scheme are transferred to the bank accounts of the concerned beneficiaries once their respective States/UTs verify their data on PM-KISAN’s web portal.
“The financial implication has been estimated on the basis of operational land holdings data as per Agri – Census Data 2015-16 extrapolated to 2018-19. The Census Data does not take care of joint land holdings. Therefore, there may be increase/decrease in number of beneficiaries from States as the onus lies with the State/UTs Governments to identify the beneficiaries and upload their details thereof on PM-KISAN portal,” he added.
Further, he said that owing to the variation in the number of beneficiaries, “the actual utilisation of the funds may vary. The actual fund position shall be ascertained by reconciliation after the end of the FY 2019-20.”
The PM-KISAN scheme has been operational since 1 December 2018 and promised eligible farmers a direct transfer of Rs 6,000 every year in three-four monthly installments of Rs 2,000 each.
“The payment is made online directly into the bank accounts of the eligible beneficiaries under Direct Benefit Transfer mode. The cut-off date for identification of beneficiaries with regard to their eligibility is 01-02-2019,” the reply read.
According to the scheme’s official website, over 7.90 crore beneficiaries across 36 states and union territories have been identified thus far. Out of which, over 3.78 crore beneficiaries have received the third installment.
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