Centre imposes stock limit on wheat for FY 2023-24

Centre on June 12 imposed a wheat ban for the current financial year till March 31, 2024.

In order to effectively manage the overall food security and to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation, the Government of India on June 12 issued an order imposing stock limits on wheat.

This will be applicable to traders, wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers and processors for all States and Union Territories, a press statement issued by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) read.

This, as per the current order, will come into force today and remain imposed for the current financial year till March 31, 2024.

While traders and wholesalers have been capped at 3,000 Metric Tonnes (mt), retailers have been given 10 mt for each retail outlet. Big chain retailers have been capped at 10 mt for each outlet and 3000 mt at all their depots.

As per the order, the stock limit on wheat for processors has been fixed at 75 percent of annual installed capacity or quantity equivalent to monthly installed capacity multiplied by the remaining months of 2023-24, whichever is less.

“Respective legal entities, as above, shall declare the stocks position on the portal (https://evegoils.nic.in/wsp/login) of Department of Food and PD and in case the stocks held by them are higher than the prescribed limits, then they shall bring the same to the prescribed stock limits within 30 days of issue of this notification,” states the order issued by Subodh Kumar Singh, Additional Secretary, DFPD.

For cases where the stocks held by them are higher than the prescribed limit, they have been asked to bring the same to the prescribed stock limits within 30 days of issue of this notification.

The move is the latest in the series of steps taken by the government to curb the rising wheat prices in the last one year.

Govt to offload wheat to bring down prices

Further, the central government has also decided to offload 1.5 million tonne of wheat in the first phase from Central Pool stock to flour mills, private traders, bulk buyers as well as manufacturers of wheat products through e-auction to control retail prices of wheat, food secretary Sanjeev Chopra said in a press briefing.

“It has also been decided to offload rice under OMSS in order to moderate the prices. The quantity for the first phase of e-auction for rice will be decided shortly,” the secretary added.

Ample wheat stock available

The government has no plans to tweak wheat import policy as ample stock is available in the country.

“However, the wheat ban on export will continue,” Chopra said.

In May last year, the government had banned all shipments of wheat.

The move comes at a time when the procurement of wheat for the Central pool is expected to be below the Centre’s expectation.

“Trade sources suggest that wheat production this year has been less than the advance estimate of the government. Similarly, domestic wheat consumption is estimated to be about 8 to 10 mt more than the Niti Ayog’s estimate of 97 mt. With threat of El Nino hovering over the country, India needs to use all its resources to ensure food security in a difficult year,” former union secretary Siraj Hussain had told Moneycontrol on June 7 when the Centre had hiked MSP for paddy by 7 percent, which he said showed government’s concern about food safety.

State elections are scheduled to be held later this year in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, along with the general elections due early next year.