Wheat Flour Millers Urge Govt, To Scrap Import Duty On Wheat

A wheat flour millers' body on Thursday demanded that the government should scrap the 40 per cent import duty on wheat to boost domestic supplies and control prices. Members of the Roller Flour Millers' Federation of India met Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey on Wednesday to discuss the issue of price rise and shortage of wheat in the market, it said in a statement.

The federation's President Anjani Agarwal said the price of wheat has increased by Rs 300-350 per quintal in the last 15 days. The industry body has raised concerns regarding unavailability of wheat and the drastic rise in price in the last 20 days even though the harvest season ended just a month back and the new crop would arrive only after eight months from now.

It has demanded the release of wheat under the Open Market Sales Scheme (OMSS) through a tender process for actual user industries. Besides, the industry body has sought reduction of import duty on wheat from 40 per cent to 0 per cent. According to the association, the food secretary has assured the flour millers that the government will intervene if the problem of wheat unavailability persists and the price of wheat rises beyond a particular price range.

The secretary has called the millers for a review meeting after 15 days, the statement said. On May 13, the government suspended wheat exports with immediate effect to control prices amid fall in domestic production because of the heat wave. It moved the export of all varieties of wheat, including high-protein durum, from 'free' to the 'prohibited' category.

India had exported a record 7 million tonnes of wheat during 2021-22 fiscal Wheat stocks in FCI godowns is expected to be 134 lakh tonnes at the start of next fiscal, 80 per cent more than the buffer norm, the government informed Parliament last month. In a written reply to Rajya Sabha last month, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal said the central pool stock of wheat as on July 1, 2022 is well above the foodgrains stocking norms. "As on July 1, 2022, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government agencies have 285.10 lakh tonnes of wheat stock under central pool against the stocking norm of 275.80 lakh tonnes," he said.

(PTI)