Govt to Sell 14,000 Tonnes of Wheat in Delhi to Check Rates

The government has doubled the quantity of wheat to 14,000 tonnes to be sold in open market through auction in the national capital on November 24 in order to check prices.The Centre recently released 10 lakh tonnes of wheat under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) meant for flour millers and other bulk users."The wholesale and retail price wheat flour in Delhi has shown an increase recently. However, the wheat prices in Delhi have started coming down now. On November 21, 2016, wholesale price is Rs 22.75/kg and retail is Rs 24/kg," an official statement said.The Food Corporation of India, through its Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) has provided 29,000 tonnes of wheat in Delhi and its neighbourhood areas in the first week of November.FCI is now increasing wheat offer on November 24th to 45,500 tonnes."For Delhi, the FCI would be doubling the wheat on offer from 7,000 tonnes to 14,000 tonnes for the OMSS auction on 24th November 2016," the statement said.The government expects that flow of imported wheat from the ports, due to the reduced import duty of 10 per cent from 25 per cent earlier, would be enough to meet the requirements of the market and the private sector.Wheat production rose to 93.5 million tonnes for the 2015-16 crop year (July-June) as compared to 86.53 million tonnes in the previous year, according to the Agriculture Ministry’s fourth advance estimate.However, according to industry estimates, wheat output was lower at 85-86 million tonnes in 2015-16.(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)