The Hindu : PDS grain price cut for APL category

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 24, 2002

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PDS grain price cut for APL category

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MARCH 23. The Union Cabinet tonight decided to reduce the price of foodgrains supplied through the public distribution system for the above the poverty line (APL) families by Re. 1 a kg for three months, to liquidate the excess stock of foodgrains in FCI godowns.

The central issue price (CIP) for rice will consequently be Rs. 7.30 a kg and for wheat Rs. 5.10 a kg. But there will be no change in the price of foodgrains supplied to the below the poverty line (BPL) families — it will remain at Rs. 5.65 a kg for rice and Rs. 4.15 a kg for wheat.

Announcing this, a Government spokesperson said the Cabinet also approved the open market sale of 50 lakh tonnes of wheat and 10 lakh tonnes of rice at prices to be determined by a high-level FCI committee.

The Cabinet also decided that the scale of issue of the foodgrains for APL, BPL and Antyodaya households would be fixed at the rate of 35 kg a family a month. The BPL families are also issued 25 kg a family a month, and for the APL category there is no scale of issue.

Likewise, the Cabinet raised the scale of issue for all welfare institutions from 5 kg to 15 kg a head a month, and approved the adjustment of export prices of both wheat and rice, subject to the condition that they would not be in any case lower than the CIP for the BPL category, to give a further boost to export of grain.

The Cabinet approved that there would be no quantitative restrictions on the export of rice, wheat and wheat products. But it would be subject to the condition that the stock in the Central pool will not be lower than that of the buffer of 243 lakh tonnes -- 100 lakh tonnes of rice and 143 lakh tonnes of wheat. The total stock of foodgrains in the Central pool as on January 1 was 580.32 lakh tonnes.

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