Centre extends sale of ‘Bharat atta’ and ‘Bharat rice’ at revised rates

By Sanjeeb Mukherjee

The Centre has extended the sale of ‘Bharat atta’ and ‘Bharat rice’ brands beyond their June 2024 deadline, in a bid to tame food prices, sources said.

However, the retail price for ‘Bharat atta’ and ‘Bharat rice’ has been revised for new stocks.

According to the new order, the retail price of ‘Bharat Atta’ will be pegged at Rs 30 per kg, which is around 9.09 per cent more than the current rate, while ‘Bharat rice’ was earmarked at Rs 34 per kg, which is around 17.24 per cent more than the current rate, sources said.

The government will offer a subsidy of Rs 2.35 per kg for ‘Bharat Atta’ which would mean that the effective issue price for such ‘atta’ for Food Corporation of India (FCI) is Rs 20.65 per kg.

For ‘Bharat rice’ the government will hand a subsidy of Rs 2 per kg, which would make the effective issue price of around Rs 22 per kg for FCI.

The subsidy would be adjusted from the Price Stabilisation Fund under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, which earlier this week bolstered by a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore in the FY25 Budget.

‘Bharat Atta’ and ‘Bharat Rice’ are cereal brands being sold by the Government at discounted rates to make essential food items affordable for the common man.

Apart from ‘atta’ and ‘rice’ the central government has also been selling pulses under the ‘Bharat’ brands.

Cooperative agencies Nafed and NCCF along with other cooperatives have been roped in to sell these brands.

Consumer Price Inflation in rice has consistently remained over 12 per cent since January 2024, while wheat prices have climbed from 2.33 per cent to 6.67 per cent during the same period.

As of July 1, 2024, wheat stocks in the central pool are estimated to be around 29.90 million tonnes which is just 0.80 per cent less during the same period last year while that of rice was 32.61 million tonnes, 28.6 per cent more than the same period last year, according to the latest data.

Sell ‘Bharat’ atta, rice brands in ration shops: Dealers association

The All India Fair Price Shops Dealers Federation urged the Centre to set up a mechanism with states so that the flagship brands of ‘Bharat Atta’ and ‘Bharat Rice’ are sold even through the network of more than 500,000 ration shops across the country.

At present, only loose rice and wheat according to the quota fixed under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are distributed free through the ration shops while packaged ‘Bharat Atta’ and ‘Rice’ are sold through the outlets of Nafed, NCCF, and other select points.

The dealers in their annual conference said that allowing the sale of ‘Bharat atta’ and ‘Bharat rice’ through ration shops will increase their incomes.

“We want ration shop owners to be made so self-sufficient that they can earn a fixed income of at least Rs 50,000 per month from their shops,” federation’s general secretary Biswambhar Basu said.

This article has been republished from The Business Standard.