The commencement of e-auction of wheat in the open market in order to cool prices has already left an impact as the government said they retreated over 10 per cent in the past one-week.
"The prices are set to fall further after the wheat sold in the e-auction is lifted and aata is made available in the market," an official statement from the food and public distribution ministry said.
Food Corporation of India offered 22.0 lakh tonne of wheat out of 25 lakh tonne earmarked in the first e-auction through the open market sale that took place during Wednesday-Thursday.
Of which, a quantity of 9.2 lakh tonne was sold across the country, according to a government release on Friday. In the e-auction, more than 1,150 bidders came forward to participate.
Further sales of wheat through e-auction will continue throughout the country every Wednesday till the second week of March 2023.
On January 25, the government said FCI will offload 30 lakh tonnes of wheat from the central pool in the markets under the Open Market Sale Scheme, within the next two months, for containing the rising domestic prices of the staple foodgrain.
"In the first week of e-auction quantities ranging from of 100 to 499 MT had maximum demand followed by quantities of 500-1000 MT followed by 50-100 MT indicating that small and medium flour millers and traders actively participated in the auction. Only 27 bids were received for the maximum quantity of 3000 MT at one go," Friday's release said.
Of the 30 lakh tonne, the government has reserved 3 lakh tonne wheat to PSUs/cooperatives/Federations like Kendriya Bhandar, NCCF and NAFED for sale without e-auction at the concessional rate of Rs 2,350 per 100 kg for converting wheat to Atta and offer it to public at a Maximum Retail Price of Rs 29.50 per kg.
NCCF has been allowed to lift 50,000 tonne of Wheat stock across 7 states. Allotment of 1 lakh tonne Wheat is made to NAFED and 1 lakh tonne to Kendriya Bhandar to bring down the price of Atta across the country.
In order to address the rising price of wheat and Atta in the country, the Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah made some recommendations which are being followed by the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
( With inputs from ANI )
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