New Delhi, Jan 19 The Central government on Thursday said that it has been taking measures to bring down domestic prices of wheat (atta), which had risen to record limits earlier this week owing to poor supplies.
Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra told media persons that measures are being considered to curb wheat prices. India is the second largest wheat producer in the world.
Despite the government having banned wheat exports in May 2022, domestic prices have been rising steadily.
Meanwhile, Chopra also said that the government will take a call on hiking sugar export quota from the current 60 lakh tonnes, after conducting an assessment of domestic production and internal demand.
The government has allowed 60 lakh tonnes of sugar exports for the current 2022-23 marketing year (October-September). India exported around 110 lakh tonnes of sugar in the previous year.
The Food Secretary further informed that in the current marketing year till now, sugar mills have dispatched 30 lakh tonnes of sugar for exports and out of that, 18 lakh tonnes have already been shipped. The Food Ministry said the entire 60 lakh tonnes will get exported by May.
Asked about increasing the exports quota, he said: "We are open to revisiting the export quota. Depending on the domestic production and internal requirement, we will take a fresh call in the next month or so."
On hiking the minimum selling price of sugar from the current Rs 31 per kg, he said mills are earning good revenue from different streams including sweetener and ethanol.
Chopra said the government has set a target of achieving 12 per cent blending of ethanol into petrol and the aim is to reach 20 per cent by 2025.
He was optimistic that the target of 20 per cent blending would be met by sourcing ethanol from different feedstock including sugarcane and grain.
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