Representative image of rice.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: In a bid to prevent hoarding amid surge in prices of rice and paddy, the central government on Friday directed all millers and traders, including retailers, wholesalers and big chain retailers, in all states and union territories (UTs) to disclose their stocks of rice on a weekly basis.
Traders have been ordered to declare their stocks every Friday online on the portal of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.
The respective legal entities i.e. traders/wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers, processors/millers have to declare stock position of paddy and rice in categories such as broken rice, non-basmati white rice, parboiled rice, basmati rice and paddy.
“The stock position of rice shall be declared by these entities within 7 days of issue of the order,” the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said in a statement.
Price of rice has shot up globally in recent months. On the domestic front, paddy prices in some states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have gone up by up to 40% in the past couple of months.
Likewise, the domestic price of rice is increasing despite a good crop this Kharif season, ample stocks with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) as well as in the pipeline for procurement and restrictions on exports. The retail prices have increased by 14.51% over the past year, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said.
Soaring prices of rice and wheat is among the key reasons for the spike in food inflation that climbed to 9.53% in December. Cereals became costlier by 9.93% year-on-year in December, as per the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) retail inflation data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
In a bid to assure customers, the food ministry said that a sufficient stock of good quality rice is available with FCI which is being offered to traders/wholesalers under open market sale scheme (OMSS) at a reserve price of Rs 29 per kg.
The central government has also launched retail sale of rice under ‘Bharat Rice’ brand at the same price to check inflationary trend.
In the first phase, 5 lakh metric tonnes of rice has been allocated for retail sale under the ‘Bharat Rice’ brand, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra told reporters. The retail sale of Bharat Rice will begin next week.
Bharat Rice brand will be available in 5 kg and 10 kg bags. It will be sold through three cooperatives — National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) and Kendriya Bhandar. It will also be available through other retail chains including e-commerce platforms very soon, Chopra said.
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