Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana: It’s Objectives, Budget and Details

What is Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana?

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), a free food-grain program, amid the first countrywide lockdown brought on by COVID-19 in March 2020.
The center offers 5 kg of free food grains each month to the underprivileged as part of this program.
In addition, families covered by the Public Distribution System (PDS) are given a subsidized ration (Rs 2-3 per kilogram) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Around 80 crore individuals who fall under both NFSA categories would receive it.?
The government created the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), a free food-grain program, amid the first countrywide lockdown brought on by COVID-19 in March 2020.
The center offers 5 kg of free food grains each month to the underprivileged as part of this program.
In addition, families covered by the Public Distribution System (PDS) are given a subsidized ration (Rs 2-3 per kilogram) under the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
Around 80 crore individuals who fall under both NFSA categories would receive it.
PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana Eligibility

Eligibility for the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana

Families falling under the Priority Households (PHH) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) categories would be eligible for the program.
According to criteria they have developed, state governments and union territory administrations are to identify PHH. According to the guidelines set forth by the Central Government, AAY households are to be recognized by States/UTs:
households headed by widows, terminally sick, crippled, or people 60 years of age or more without a guaranteed source of support from society or the economy.
Those who are widowed, terminally sick, crippled, at least 60 years old, or unmarried men or women without family or community support or a guaranteed source of income.
All primitive tribal households.
Landless agriculture laborers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood daily in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitute and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV-positive people.

Budget for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana

The central government would cover Rs 2 lakh crore under the “PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana” for the full year, according to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2023 statements. This program aims to give every Antyodaya and privileged household a year of free food grains. The National Food Security Act and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana would be combined till December 2023, the Cabinet determined in January. Beginning on January 1, 2023, the new program will be implemented, benefiting more than 80 crores of the poorest of the poor.

Objectives of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana

The PMGKY was initially established to recover black money from tax evaders by providing them with immunity from legal action. The government provided a chance for tax evaders to reveal unreported income with a 49.9% tax rate under the PM Garib Kalyan Yojana plan. The deposited money was to be used to eliminate income disparity in the nation. The government announced humanitarian efforts during the COVID-19 epidemic with the scheme extension in 2020. The extension’s main goals were to promote small businesses (with up to 100 employees) and minimize employment disruption for low-wage workers. By extension, the central government paid the full employee EPF payments (12% of the total salaries) as well as the employers’ EPF and EPS contributions (12% of wages), for a three-month total of 24% of the monthly wages. The government also established assistance programs to help the underprivileged through various programs. The Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, released a relief package totaling Rs. 1.70 lakh crore under the PMGKY.

Road Ahead

The PMGKY is progressing quickly toward its goal of eliminating poverty in the nation. The program has not only seen the repatriation of illicit funds from tax evaders, but it has also assisted the government in addressing problems brought on by pandemic-related economic disruptions. PMGKY has provided a roadmap for assisting the underprivileged during COVID and has assisted the nation in halting the widening income gap between the affluent and the poor.

The government has assisted low-income residents to carry on with their everyday lives despite their incapacity to work through several programs and packages under the PMGKY.