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With the price of atta, or wheat flour, hovering over Rs 38 per kg, the Union Food Ministry on Thursday said that cooperatives such as Kendriya Bhandar and NAFED have agreed to supply it at Rs 29.5 per kg under the “Bharat Atta” name.
While Kendriya Bhandar began selling atta at Rs. 29.5/kg from Thursday, the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) will supply at this rate from February 6, the Food Ministry said in a statement.
As per data on the Department of Consumer Affairs’ website, all-India daily retail average price of atta was Rs 38.1 per kg on Thursday, against Rs 31.14 per kg recorded a year ago. To bring down the prices, the government has announced offloading 30 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) wheat in the open market through open market sale scheme (OMSS).
On Thursday, Union Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sanjeev Chopra held a meeting with Food Corporation of India (FCI), Kendriya Bhandar, NAFED and NCCF and it was decided that these institutions will lift wheat up to 3 LMT from FCI depots, the ministry stated. After converting the wheat into atta, they will sell it to consumers at Rs 29.5/kg through various retail outlets, mobile vans, etc, “to check inflationary trend in the food economy”, the statement said.
It was also decided that corporations, cooperatives, federations or self-help groups of state governments/UTs “may also get allocated wheat” at Rs 23.5/kg from the Centre “for sale of atta to consumers at Rs 29.5/kg”, the ministry stated.
Wheat and atta prices have seen upward trends since last year. The increase was due to a lower domestic production and a higher demand abroad in view of supply disruptions caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In a separate statement, the ministry said FCI has sold 8.88 LMT wheat in the first e-auction.
“Food Corporation of India offered 22.0 LMT out of 25 LMT wheat stock earmarked for e-auction wheat from the Central pool stock to the market through various routes under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) in the first e-auction on February 1,” the ministry stated.
With more than 1,100 bidders taking part, “8.88 LMT was sold on the first day of e-auction in 22 states”, it added.
According to the ministry, further sale of wheat through e-auction will continue across the country every Wednesday, until the second week of March.
The statement said, “Offloading of 30 LMT wheat in the market through OMSS (D) scheme within two months…will have wider reach as well as immediate impact on the soaring wheat and atta prices…”
Last week, the government had decided to offload 30 LMT wheat from the Central pool stock to the market.
The move came after the meeting of a Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah.
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