Centre brings wheat and rice under price stabilization fund

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₹435 for a quintal of wheat and ₹200 per quintal of rice supplied to Nafed and NCCF for processing these and then selling under the Bharat brand. The government already sells Bharat atta (flour) and rice at a subsidized price of ₹27.50 and ₹29 a kg. However, sales of the Bharat brand have been tepid.

“Inclusion of wheat and rice as PSF commodity will enable subsidy payment from the open market sale scheme operations for wheat and rice," the official cited above said. “Inclusion of rice as one of the commodities for PSF operations was done last September, while wheat has been added recently. The inclusion of wheat means a subsidy of around ₹326 crore, which has been approved by the concerned authorities and will be given to FCI from PSF," the official said.

“FCI may claim the subsidy amount through DFPD (department of food and public distribution) for the quantity of wheat allocated for Bharat atta, and DoCA (department of consumer affairs) will disburse the approved subsidy after examining the reimbursement claim." PSF was set up in 2014-15 with a corpus of ₹500 crore to maintain a strategic buffer stock that would discourage hoarding and speculation, protect consumers by supplying commodities at reasonable prices through the calibrated release of stock from the buffer, and incentivize domestic production through direct purchase from farmers and farmers’ associations at the farm gate or mandi. During FY15-FY23, the Centre spent ₹27,489 crore under the scheme. Queries sent to the consumer affairs, food and public distribution ministry and FCI remained unanswered at press time.