Wheat to be sold to traders at Rs.12.50 a kg; decision on sugar deferred  The Centre will release five million tonnes of wheat from its pool in the open market to enhance availability and maintain a check on prices. The wheat, to be released in July, would be available directly from depots for traders and retail buyers at a reserved price of approximately Rs.12.54 a kg. Wheat is selling in Delhi...

The government today decided to release five million tonnes of wheat in the open market and retain zero duty on sugar and wheat imports in the wake of soaring food prices. The empowered group of ministers (EGOM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, decided to offload wheat under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) at prices lower than the market price. Wheat will be sold from the government godowns between July...

KEY TRENDS   • During 2014-15, while procurement of foodgrains (rice and wheat) increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 60.2 million tonnes, offtake of foodgrains (rice and wheat) from the PDS decreased from 59.8 million tonnes to 55.9 million tonnes. Despite increased availability in the PDS and prevalence of high inflation in foodgrains, dependence on the PDS is reducing, suggesting that there may be issues of availability, timely availability and quality of the PDS foodgrains...