In the 1985 Rajiv Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of India, had said that for every rupee, targeted towards drought-affected Kalahandi district in Odisha, only a fraction, 15 paise, reached the intended beneficiary.^[1][2] This observation by the Prime Minister has been called a guess, an estimate, not based on empirical data.^[3] While the statement has been connected to corruption, it has also been taken as an understanding of the large operating costs and overheads of administering public services.^[4] India's Chief Vigilance Commissioner later added that of the remaining, "40 paise perhaps can be accounted for administrative overheads and 45 paise is pure corruption".^[5]

It has also been felt and politically stated that even less than 15 paise is a truer estimate in some cases; 10 paise,^[6] even less than 5 paise.^[7] In 2007, in the same context, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that the amount that reaches the poor has reached 50%.^[8][9] In 2009, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed that there were still leakages, however not to the tune of what Rajiv Gandhi had felt.^[10][11] An empirical estimate based on a later study under economist Kirit Parikh came up with the figure of 16 paise.^[4] This figure varies between state and program. A 2005 study stated "one rupee of budgetary consumer subsidy is worth only 27 paise to the poor" with a finding that about 58% of food grains do not reach the intended target.^[1]