Centre Reduces Wheat Rate to Rs. 21.50/Kg for sale to NCCF/NAFED/ Kendriya Bhandar

This will aid in the supply of wheat to the general public in various parts of the country at a reasonable price. Furthermore, states may be permitted to purchase wheat from FCI at prices higher than reserve prices without participating in the e-auction.

Furthermore, the wheat rate has been reduced to Rs. 21.50/Kg for sale to NCCF/NAFED/Kendriya Bhandar/State Govt. Cooperatives/ Federations, etc., as well as community kitchens/charitable/NGO, etc., engaged in relief operations/running relief camps for migrant laborers/vulnerable groups.

This concessional rate will be applicable to NCCF/NAFED/ Kendriya Bhandar/State Govt. Cooperatives/ Federations, etc., with the condition that they convert wheat to atta and sell it to the public at a price not exceeding Rs 27.50/Kg.

On January 25, 2023, the Committee of Ministers met under the chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah to review the prices of essential commodities. The committee decided to release 30 LMT of wheat from FCI stock via the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) in the following manner:

• As per standard procedure used by FCI, 25 LMT will be made available to traders, flour mills, and other parties via an online auction. A maximum of 3000 MT per region per auction is the amount at which bidders may participate in an electronic auction.

• LMT be offered to State Governments for their schemes @10,000 MT/State without e-auction.

• Without an e-auction, 3 LMT will be offered to government PSUs/cooperatives/federations such as Kendriya Bhandar/NCCF/NAFED, among others. This is subject to the condition that they convert wheat into atta and sell it to the public at a price not exceeding Rs 29.50/kg.

As a result, this Department allocated 3 LMT of wheat to Kendriya Bhandar/ NAFED/NCCF in accordance with their requests. Kendriya Bhandar, NAFED, and NCCF each received 1.32 LMT, 1 LMT, and 0.68 LMT. FCI sold 9.26 LMT of wheat out of a total of 25 LMT to traders, flour mills, and others during the first e-auction held on February 1st and 2nd, 2023.

Following the announcement of the OMSS Policy, the GoI observed that wheat market prices remained extremely high. It has also been observed that, as a result of the inclusion of freight charges in the base prices for auction under OMSS, the auction rates in states other than Punjab, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh are extremely high, particularly in the North-East, Eastern, and Southern regions.