The government is likely to spend only 66 percent of the funds that were budgeted for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme. This was the scheme announced before the elections where the Centre had promised Rs 6,000 every year to small and marginal farmers.

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The budget had made an allocation of Rs 75,000 crore. Now, North Block sources have indicated that the Centre is likely to spend only Rs 50,000 crore and could end up saving Rs 25,000 crore.

In terms of farmer families, the number likely to be covered will be lower than what the government had expected.

On May 31, the government had expanded the scope of PM-Kisan and 14.5 crore farmer families had been estimated with an additional expense of Rs 12,000 crore which is a budget size of Rs 87,000 crore. Now, that is unlikely to happen by March-end. Currently, it is estimated that around 10-11.9 crore farmer families may be covered.

First Published:Nov 27, 2019 6:09 PM IST