Imposition of ceiling on wheat stocks
Context:
- Recently, the Union Government imposed limits on stock of wheat that can be held by traders, wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers and processors.
- It is to manage the “overall food security and to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation”.
- The objective here is to stabilise the price of the essential commodity by steadying supply.
- The order stood effective with immediate effect until the end of March next year.
- The mentioned entities are expected to declare their stock positions and update them regularly on the Department of Food and Public Distribution’s portal.
- If the stock held by them are higher than the limit, they will have 30 days from the day of issue of notification to bring the same under the prescribed limits.
What are the additional orders?
- The government has also decided to offload 15 lakh tonnes of wheat from the central pool via the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) to flour mills, private traders, bulk buyers, manufacturers of wheat products through eauction.
- The idea is to control retail prices of wheat. They would be sold in lot sizes of 10 to 100 metric tonnes.
- This would be the first tranche, and more could be released depending on the prices and demand.
- The Food Secretary also announced that the government would offload rice under OMSS to moderate its prices.
Syllabus: Prelims + Mains; GS III – Food security
