The Union  Cabinet has approved the extension of  the  Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) for another four months i.e. December 2021 till March 2022. The foodgrain under Phase V would entail an estimated food subsidy of Rs 53,344.52 crore.

Phase-IV of the scheme was slated to end on November 30.

In March 2020, the union government had announced the distribution of additional free-of-cost foodgrains (Rice/Wheat) to about 80 crore National Food Security Act (NFSA) beneficiaries at the scale of five Kg per person per month under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) in the wake of economic disruptions caused by the unprecedented outbreak of COVID-19.

PMGKAY Phase-I and Phase-II were operational from April to June, 2020 and July to November, 2020 respectively. Phase-III of the scheme was operational from May to June, 2021. Phase-IV of the scheme is currently operational for July-November, 2021.

The total outgo in terms of foodgrains for PMGKAY Phase V is likely to be about 163 LMT.
A total of almost 600 LMT foodgrains had been allocated to the states/UTs equivalent to about Rs 2.07 lakh crore in food subsidy under the PMGKAY(phase I to IV).

As per the reports available from states/UTs so far,  93.8 per cent foodgrains have been lifted and nearly 37.32 LMT (93.9 per cent of July), 37.20 LMT (93.6 per cent of August), 36.87 LMT (92.8 per cent of September), 35.4 LMT (89 per cent of October) and 17.9 LMT ( 45 per cent of November) foodgrains have been distributed to about 74.64 crore, 74.4 crore, 73.75 crore, 70.8 crore and 35.8 crore beneficiaries respectively under PMGKAY-IV.

In all, the government will be incurring an expenditure of nearly Rs 2.60 lakh crore in PMGKAY Phase I- V.