Subsidies released to the Food Corporation of India have been steadily declining and data show that the corporation has not received any subsidy for the past three years. As a result, it has been forced to borrow from the National Small Savings Fund (NSSF).

Loans from NSSF to FCI have more than doubled from ₹70,000 crore in FY17 to ₹1,91,000 crore as of November 2019, in FY20, according to the latest data with the corporation.

For FY21, such loans are estimated to rise to ₹2,54,600 crore, according to the latest budget documents. FCI’s main operation includes procurement of grains at the minimum support price declared by the Government of India, store the grains so procured, transport the surplus to deficit states and issue it to state governments under the Public Distribution System at a price decided by the Centre. Since the issue prices declared by the Centre under different schemes are much lower than the cost of grains procured, the differential amount is reimbursed to FCI as food subsidy by the government.

The last time FCI received subsidy from the government was in 2016-17, when it got ₹53,334 crore or 49 per cent of the entitled ₹1,09,135 crore for the year. FCI also maintains buffer stocks of grains as mandated by the Government of India and intervenes in the domestic market to control the rising prices of grains.