The margin money paid to ration dealers would be increased to ₹200 per quintal from ₹70 per quintal, the proposal for which would be placed before the Cabinet at the earliest, Delhi Food and Civil Supplies Minister Imran Hussain said on Saturday.
Mr. Hussain’s announcement came after a meeting with the office-bearers of the Delhi Sarkari Ration Dealers Sangh, a statement said. He said the long-pending demand of the fair price shop owners for an increase in margin money was “under active consideration of the government”.
He said the government had earlier decided to hike the margin money from ₹70 per quintal to ₹200 per quintal for foodgrains while starting the electronic point of sale (e-POS) system. “However, due to severe deficiencies noticed in the e-PoS-based distribution of foodgrains, the government was forced to suspend the operation of e-PoS devices. Considering the difficulties faced by FPS dealers in running their FPSs viably, the Delhi government has decided to consider the demands of ration dealers for increasing margin money in offline mode also,” the statement said. As per the National Food Security Act, 2013, the Delhi government distributes 3.75 lakh quintal of food articles to 72.78 lakh beneficiaries every month.