Govt mulls steps to curb rise in costs after poor offtake of rice from FCI

The Authorities is reportedly contemplating a couple of measures to examine rice costs, together with inventory restrict and retail gross sales at discounted charges., The Reserve Financial institution of India has flagged the problem as a priority. The Centre is mulling these measures following poor offtake of the grain within the weekly public sale on Wednesday. Whereas 3.53 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat have been bought out of 4 lt on provide, solely 10,000 tonnes of rice out of 1.93 lt supplied by Meals Company of India (FCI) have been purchased.

“It’s unlucky that merchants should not listening to authorities and never taking part within the public sale despite the fact that they’ve been requested to take action. Although the Authorities by no means wished to take any motion, it might be compelled to take action to extend availability,” a supply mentioned with out elaborating what the choices are earlier than the Authorities.

Trade sources mentioned a inventory restrict order is within the pipeline and there could possibly be some discounted gross sales by cooperatives much like Bharat atta, which is being bought at ₹275/10 kg pack.

So, far only one.43 lt of rice have been bought whereas 55.11 lt of wheat have been bought by FCI beneath open market gross sales scheme (OMCC) since June 28 to extend home availability and curb worth rise.

Costs up 14% YoY

Retail common worth of rice has been recorded at ₹43.33/kg on December 26, up by 14 per cent from a 12 months in the past whereas wheat fee was ₹31.02/kg on Tuesday, up by 1 per cent from a 12 months in the past. Within the wholesale market, the all India common rice is up by 15 per cent whereas wheat is down by 1 per cent from a 12 months in the past.

The Meals Company of India (FCI), which is conducting the e-auctions, has thus far carried out 27 rounds of bidding. The Centre has allotted 101.5 lt of wheat for the OMSS until March 2024 and is able to additional improve it by l 25 lt if there’s demand.

The weighted common worth of wheat was ₹2,181.31 per quintal on December 27 public sale by FCI, a tad greater from ₹2,178.24/quintal within the earlier week. The typical promoting worth of rice was ₹2,910.86 per quintal, in opposition to ₹2,905.40/quintal within the earlier week.

The federal government was anticipating extra participation from millers and merchants after the minimal amount of rice {that a} bidder can bid was lowered to 1 tonne from 10 tonnes and most amount raised to 2,000 tonnes from 1,000 tonnes.