Centre lowers Wheat Reserve Price to reduce price of atta

This will be applicable for fair average quality or FAQ as well as URS wheat of all crops including RMS 2023-24 without adding any transportation cost component.

URS wheat refers to “Under Relaxed Specifications (URS) wheat”.

In May 2022, the Food Corporation of India said shrivelled grains would be specified as URS instead of FAQ. This was arrived at after quality control wings of both FCI and the government carried out several tests on the shrivelled grain and found such grains only lost weight and their quality was intact.

In a statement on Friday, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said the reduction in wheat reserve price will help the supply of wheat to the general public in different parts of the country at a reasonable price.

In addition, the states may be allowed to purchase wheat from FCI for their own scheme at the above reserve prices without participating in e-auction.

Further, the rate of wheat 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/NGOs etc engaged in relief operations/ running relief camps for migrant labourers/vulnerable groups.

This concessional rate for NCCF/NAFED/ Kendriya Bhandar/State Govt. Cooperatives/ Federations etc. will be applicable with the stipulation that they will convert wheat to atta and offer it to public at an MRP not exceeding ₹ 27.50/Kg.

The meeting of the Committee of Ministers to review the prices of essential commodities was chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah on January 25.

In the meeting, the committee decided to release 30 LMT wheat from FCI stock through Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) with 25 LMT offered through the e-auction route to traders, flour mills, etc as per the usual process followed by FCI.

Bidders can participate in e-auction for a maximum quantity of 3000 MT per region per auction, the statement said.

Further, it was decided to offer 2 LMT to state governments for their schemes with each state eligible to get 10,000 MT without e-auction.

Another 3 LMT has been made available to Govt PSUs/cooperatives/Federations such as Kendriya Bhandar/NCCF/NAFED etc without e-auction.

This will be subject to the stipulation that they convert wheat to atta and offer it to the public at an MRP not exceeding Rs 29.50/kg.

Subsequently, the Department of Food & Public Distribution made an allocation of 3 LMT of wheat to Kendriya Bhandar/ NAFED /NCCF as per their requisitions. Kendriya Bhandar, NAFED and NCCF were allocated 1.32 LMT, 1 LMT and 0.68 LMT respectively.

FCI has sold 9.26 LMT of wheat out of 25 LMT to traders, flour mills, etc in course of the first e-auction held on 1st and February 2.

After the announcement of the OMSS Policy, the Centre has observed that the market prices of wheat are still very high, the ministry said.

It has also been observed that due to the inclusion of freight charges in base prices for auction under OMSS, the auction rates in States, which are away from Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, are very high, especially in the North-East region, Eastern Region and Southern region, it added.