The Centre has given six months more to States for supplying the additional 10 kg of wheat and rice through ration shops.
On January 21, the Cabinet Committee on Prices had made an ad-hoc allocation of 10 kg of foodgrains per month to all ration card holders for January and February to provide relief from high food prices.
The additional quantity was over and above the existing allocation of 35 kg of foodgrains. States were allowed to lift the quantity by March 2010.
"We have decided to extend the deadline of ad-hoc allocation of 10 kg of foodgrains by six months till September 2010," a senior government official said.
The scheme was extended as the States' response to lifting grains has been poor.
The empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had approved the proposal recently, the official said, adding that the decision would help in offloading stocks from the central pool and make space for new wheat crop.
Under the scheme, the Centre had earmarked 10.64 lakh tonnes of rice and 25.43 lakh tonnes of wheat to cardholders under AAY, BPL and APL categories.
The allocation has been made at Rs 10.80 per kg for wheat and Rs 15.37 per kg for rice.