Wheat offtake under various public distribution schemes (PDS) run by the central government has seen a sharp jump of nearly 49 per cent in the April-June period of the current financial year on higher allocations and stable sale price.
The sharp rise in offtake could be partially attributed to the changing food habits.
During the April-June period, the average monthly offtake of wheat under these schemes increased to 1.19 million tonnes, compared to the monthly average offtake of 805,186 tonnes during 2008-09. Allocations under these schemes have also been raised by a sharp 48 per cent.
The monthly allocation during the April-June period was 1.7 mt vis a vis the monthly average of 1.2 mt in 2008-09, said an official at Food Corporation of India, the government’s grain procurement and distribution agency.
The sale price of wheat for most of these categories has been kept stable since 2000-01, even as the open market price, as well as the government purchase price, have been moving up. For instance, the sale price of wheat for BPL (below poverty line) families has been kept unchanged at Rs 4.15 a kg since 2000-01. Similarly, the sale price to AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) beneficiaries has been retained at Rs 2 a kg since 2000-01.
However, this has been possible owing to a large subsidy component to the tune of 70 per cent. The cost of wheat to the government has, however, has increased over 62 per cent since 2000 to Rs 13.93 a kg. In the open market, wheat has been selling at Rs 14-15 a kg.
The allocations under these schemes have been increased on the back of record wheat procurement by the government. The country saw a record wheat harvest of 80.58 mt in the 2008-09 rabi season. Even the procurement jumped to an all-time high of 25.29 mt. Procurement has been better this year on account of higher minimum support price, which was raised to Rs 1,080 from Rs 1,000 a quintal.
As on July 1, the government had huge wheat stock of 32.92 mt, which can comfortably cater to the PDS requirement for two years.
