Food Ministry rules out any plan to ‘alter’ wheat import duty, says India has ample stock

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Amid reports of plans to facilitate import of wheat to bolster domestic availability in India, the government on Thursday said that there is no such plan as the country has sufficient stock of the grain to meet domestic requirements. However, many experts said that the option will remain on table, depending on the domestic prices as import will be done by the private trade and not by the government.

Stressing that the Department of Food and Public Distribution under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution is closely monitoring the market price of wheat, an official statement said, “at present, there is no proposal to alter the duty structure on imports of wheat.”

The Ministry also said that the current wheat stock is enough to undertake market interventions, if required, to keep prices stable. “A decision on import will depend on domestic price movement. As the Consumer Affairs Ministry data do not show any hike in retail wheat or atta prices, the government is not worried. However, the price movement till winter will determine further policy action if required as the arrivals of fresh wheat has just concluded in major growing States,” said Harish Goel, a trader from Uttar Pradesh.

Suitable interventions

The government said that suitable interventions, as warranted, shall be undertaken to ensure that there is no hoarding by unscrupulous elements and the price remains stable.

During the 2023-24 crop year (July-June), wheat production was 112 million tonnes (mt) and Food Corporation of India (FCI) has purchased 26.6 mt for the Central Pool until June 11 after the procurement season began in April.

The wheat stock has at no point of time dipped below the quarterly buffer stock norms, the government said. Further, sufficient wheat stock will be available for market interventions when needed, after meeting the requirement for the public distribution system and other welfare schemes, which is estimated at around 18.4 mt, the Ministry said.

The official reserves of wheat dropped to 29.91 mt on June 1, which is the lowest in last 16 years because the current procurement did not meet expectations. The official reserves could not be bolstered after a record 10 mt sold in open market last year despite low purchases for two consecutive years. Officials data show that the previous lowest wheat stock in Central Pool was at 24.12 mt on June 1, 2008.