From Plate to Plough: A win-win deal

Replacing subsidies with direct cash transfers to farmers’ accounts will empower them as well as consumers.

Union budget, Union budget 2019, Union budget tax reforms, tax cut, tax cut for private sectors, job creation, union budget investment, investment companies, budget 2019, indian express — Can the Modi government rationalise these subsidies by converting them into direct cash transfers on a per hectare basis?

In her budget speech, the Union finance minister (FM) said: “At the centre of everything that we do, we keep gaon, garib aur kisan in mind.” Here then is a small mantra for her to transform the lives of the kisan and the poor in rural areas. Just streamline the food and fertiliser subsidies by converting them to direct cash transfers to identified beneficiaries. This can be done through the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile). Such a measure would not only empower the poor and farmers but also usher in a policy shift that can save the exchequer least Rs 50,000 crore every year. The government can invest this in agri-R&D and better water management, in measures to ensure the country’s food security for the next 25 years and to augment farmers’ incomes.