The government on Monday formed a six-member committee to study how the proposed ration card system, designed mainly as a welfare scheme for the poor, can be implemented.

According to the Supply Ministry, the panel is led by Joint Secretary Uttam Prasad Nagila and includes an under-secretary each from the ministries of Cooperative and Poverty Alleviation and Federal Affairs and Local Development.

Director Niraj Poudel and Under-Secretary Prem Prasad Acharya of the Department of Supply Management and President Bimala Khanal of Consumer Eye Nepal also sit on the committee. The panel has been given three months to finish its task.

The committee has been mandated to study practices in neighbouring countries, the rationale behind the card system and the steps the government needed to take to implement it, said Ananda Ram Regmi, spokesperson for the Supply Ministry.

According to him, cardholders will be able to buy daily essentials at subsidized rates from government-owned enterprises and cooperatives after the scheme is implemented.

Salt Trading, National Trading and Food Corporation will set up fair price shops where people can use the ration cards. In rural areas, basic commodities will be distributed through cooperatives as per the ministry’s plan.

Regmi said they began work to implement the ration card system after receiving the green signal from the Finance Ministry which will provide the necessary funding. According to him, the Finance Ministry has pledged to allocate the required budget from its emergency fund.

The Supply Ministry said the ration card system was mainly targeted at people living below the poverty line. In the first phase, it plans to enforce the card system in the 14 earthquake affected districts or the 25 districts where the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation has conducted a survey to distribute identity cards to the poor.

Economists said that the plan was good but measures needed to be taken to ensure that it is not misused by fake poor people.

“Well-off people have been taking advantage of such schemes because of lack of a proper tracking system,” said Shankar Sharma, former vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC). “Traders have taken benefit when poor people were given subsidies on kerosene in the past,” he added.

Economist Madan Kumar Dahal said the government needed to identify people under the poverty line through proper poverty mapping before distributing the ration cards.

Dahal stressed the need for developing an administrative mechanism for effective implementation of the card system. “It must be ensured that poor people get the specified quantity of essentials at subsidised rates by decentralizing authority to the grassroots level,” he added.