Bharat Atta to cost ₹2 less as govt aims to put lid on prices
NEW DELHI : The government on Monday cut the price of state-produced Bharat Atta by ₹2 a kg from ₹29.50 per kg to keep prices in check amid festival season demand. Launching the scheme, which was announced in February this year, Union consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday that semi-government and cooperative organizations such as the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India Ltd (NCCF) and Kendriya Bhandar will lift 250,000 tonnes of wheat at ₹21.50 per kg under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) for converting to atta.
This will be offered for sale to the public as ‘Bharat Atta’ at an MRP of ₹ 27.50 a kg through 800 mobile vans and 2,000 retail outlets. “This is the latest among a series of steps taken by the GoI for the welfare of ordinary consumers.
The launch of retail sales of Bharat Atta will increase supplies in the market at an affordable rate and will help in the continued moderation of prices of this important food item," Goyal said. On 2 November, Mint reported the government was planning to offload a quarter of a million tonnes of wheat into the country’s vast food distribution system and offer cut-price whole wheat flour made from it in the run-up to the last festival season of its term.
Under the plan, the Centre would slash the price of Bharat Atta to ₹27.50 per kg from the existing ₹29.50 a kg. The Union government in February announced the scheme to offload 300,000 tonnes of wheat from the Food Corp.
of India (FCI) to Kendriya Bhandar, NAFED and NCCF and sell flour as Bharat Atta at ₹29.50 per kg to check inflation, which was discontinued after some time. “In February, we
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