In order to address the rising price of wheat and Atta in the country, as per the recommendation made by the Committee of Ministers, Food Corporation of India (FCI) offered 22 lakh million tonnes out of 25 LMT wheat stock earmarked for e-auction wheat from the Central pool stock to the market through various routes under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) in the e-auction on 1st and 2nd February 2023.
In the e-auction, more than 1150 bidders came forward for participation in the first week and a quantity of 9.2 LMT was sold across the country. Further, the sale of wheat through e-auction will continue throughout the country every Wednesday till 2nd week of March 2023.
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In the first week of the e-auction quantities ranging from 100 to 499 MT had maximum demand followed by quantities of 500-1000 MT followed by 50-100 MT indicating that small and medium flour millers and traders actively participated in the auction. Only 27 bids were received for the maximum quantity of 3000 MT in one go.
A weighted average rate of Rs.2,474 per quintal was realised by FCI in the auction. Rs.2,290 crores were generated by FCI in the e-auction.
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From the 3 LMT wheat allocated to the government, PSUs, cooperatives, federations like Kendriya Bhandar, NCCF and NAFED for sale without e-auction at the concessional rate of Rs 2,350 per quintals for converting wheat to Atta and offer it to public at a Maximum Retail Price of Rs. 29.50 per Kg. NCCF is allocated 50,000 MT of wheat across seven states. Allotment of 1 LMT wheat is made to NAFED and 1 LMT wheat is made to Kendriya Bhandar under this scheme to bring down the price of Atta across the country. Kendriya Bhandar has launched the scheme for selling Atta under the scheme. NAFED is set to start the scheme across eight states.
The e-auction has already left an impact of fall in market prices of wheat by more than 10 per cent in the past week. The prices are set to fall further after the wheat sold in the e-auction is lifted and Aata is made available in the market.
