The Centre on Wednesday announced that it will be off loading 30 lakh tonnes of wheat in the open market from its pool stock in order to keep in check the rising prices of wheat and wheat flour (atta).
The government will sell the wheat stock in open market within a span of two months through multiple channels will have wider reach to keep the prices of wheat and flour in check.
While wheat will be sold to bulk consumers like flour millers through e-auction, the FCI will for a maximum quantity of 3000 MT per buyer, per auction, from a FCI Region under e-auction.
Wheat will also be offered to State Governments/UTs for their schemes without e-auction.
It will also be offered at a concessional rates of ₹2350 per quintal to state-owned PSUs/cooperatives/Federations, Kendriya Bhandar/NCCF/NAFED etc without e-auction. The sale under this special scheme will be subject to the stipulation that the buyer will convert wheat to atta and offer it to public at an Maximum Retail Price of Rs. 29.50 per kg.
The FCI will offload wheat within the next two months to the market.
As per the government data, the average wheat price across major cities stood at ₹33.43 per kilogram on Wednesday, up from ₹28.24 per kg a year ago. Average prices of atta (wheat flour) stood at ₹37.95 per kg against ₹31.41/kg a year ago.
The ministry had said that sales of wheat in the market through this scheme will have an "immediate impact on the soaring wheat and atta prices and will help contain the rising prices and will bring much relief to the common man".
In order to address the rising prices of wheat and atta, the group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah met on Wednesday and discussed the buffer stock position of the country.
India's wheat production fell to 106.84 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year (July-June) from 109.59 million tonnes in the previous year due to heat waves in a few states. The procurement fell sharply to 19 million tonnes this year from around 43 million tonnes last year.
The area under coverage for wheat crops in the current rabi (winter-sown) season is slightly higher. The procurement of new wheat crops would commence from April 2023.
