L-G Baijal passed the order revising the margin money
dOn Monday, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal passed an order which revises the “margin money of fair price shop (FPS) dealers” for distribution of wheat, rice and sugar under targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) up to the quantity distributed through e-PoS device.
In January, Food and Supplies Minister Imran Hussain announced the hike, and in a statement, said, “There was long-pending demand of FPS owners to increase the margin money in order to enable them to run FPS in a sustainable and viable manner.” Margin money for wheat and rice has been increased from Rs 70/quintal to Rs 200/quintal, while margin money for sugar has been increased from Rs 10/quintal to Rs 200/quintal. The hike on the three items distributed via Aadhaar Card-based e-PoS devices is effective from January 1, 2018.
The order also mentions that “margin money will continue to be paid at old rates against the quantity of manual distribution of wheat, rice and sugar”. Anil Kumar (43), who runs an FPS in Sarai Kale Khan, said, “The raise is helpful, to some extent it will help us cover our expenditure, rent, wages.”
However, Kunj Bihari Bansal (54), who runs an FPS in Gautam Nagar, said, “It’s not enough, rents are very high in the city and we have to pay wages to one labourer who weighs the ration. Even with this raise, we can barely pay him minimum wage.” As per a member of Sarkari Ration Dealer Sangh (Delhi), there’s a meeting scheduled Tuesday at 3 pm with Hussain over “the raise and the government’s plan of implementing home delivery of ration.”
Saurabh Gupta, secretary of the Sangh, said, “We get 70 paise/kilogram margin, and it’s been increased to Rs 2/kilogram… however, we demanded Rs 2.80/kilogram. We bifurcated the expenditure — wages, rent, electricity — and gave an estimate. Some FPS dealers are happy, some aren’t.”
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