The government on Friday announced retail sale of rice at Rs 29 per kg under ‘Bharat Rice’ through three cooperatives. The move is aimed at controlling the rise in rice prices, which have risen by 14.5 per cent in retail and 15.5 per cent in the wholesale markets in the last one year.
Announcing the decision, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said 5 lakh metric tonnes of rice has been allocated and the retail sale of ‘Bharat Rice’ will begin next week. The rice will be available in 5kg and 10kg 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.
Chopra also said that there is no proposal to revisit export regulations on essential commodities.
In a statement, the Department of Food and Public Distribution said, “Further, to check inflationary trends in the food economy, it has been decided to start retail sale of ‘Bharat Rice’ to general consumers.”
“In the first phase, 5 LMT of rice has been allocated for retail sale under ‘Bharat Rice’ brand through 3 agencies viz NAFED, NCCF and Kendriya Bhandar. Retail price for sale of Bharat Rice to general consumers will be Rs 29/kg. Rice will be sold in 5kg and 10kg bags. Bharat Rice will be available for purchase from mobile vans and physical outlets of the three central cooperative agencies to begin with, and it will also be available through other retail chains, including e-commerce platforms very soon,” it said.
The department has also asked traders/wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers, processors/millers to declare their stock of rice and paddy.
“In order to manage the overall food inflation and to prevent unscrupulous speculation, the government of India has decided that stock position of rice/paddy must be declared by traders/wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers and processors/millers in all states and Union Territories until further orders,” the statement said.
“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 (i) broken rice, (ii) non-basmati white rice, (iii) parboiled rice, (iv) basmati rice, (v) paddy. The entities are expected to update it every Friday on the portal (https://evegoils.nic.in/rice/login.html) of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.”
“The stock position of rice shall be declared by these entities within 7 days of issue of the order,” it said.
The statement further said, “The domestic prices of rice are increasing despite a good crop this Kharif, ample stocks with FCI and in the pipeline and various regulations in place on rice exports. The retail prices have increased by 14.51% over the past year. In an effort to curb the prices of rice, various steps have already been taken by the government.”
“Sufficient stock of good quality rice is available with FCI which is being offered to traders/wholesalers under OMSS at a reserve price of Rs 29/kg. In order to increase the sale of rice in the open market, GoI reduced the reserve price of rice from Rs 3,100/quintal to Rs 2,900/quintal and the minimum and maximum quantity of rice was revised to 1MT and 2,000MT respectively,” the statement said.
“In addition to this, regular publicity has been done by the FCI regional offices for wider outreach. As a result, the sale of rice has gradually increased. Till 31.01.2024, 1.66LMT rice has been sold in the open market, which is the highest sale in any year under OMSS (D) for rice,” it said.
