general public Troubled by rising inflation. All food items have increased rapidly. Due to this, the household budget of common people is getting messed up. Now the government has made a big announcement to provide relief from rising inflation. The government on Thursday announced the sale of 25 lakh tonnes of FCI wheat to bulk domestic consumers by March 2025 to curb food inflation. Experts say that this step of the government will reduce the prices of goods made from wheat, which will directly benefit the general public. The wheat will be sold under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) initiative of the government. It is managed by the government-owned Food Corporation of India (FCI), controlling supply and prices.
Wheat will be sold through e-auction
The reserve price for wheat under OMSS has been fixed at Rs 2,325 per quintal for Fair and Average Quality (FAQ) grains and Rs 2,300 per quintal for URS (slightly lower quality) grains, the food ministry said in a statement. Wheat will be sold to private companies, including flour mills, wheat product makers, processors and end users, through e-auction till March 31, 2025. However, the government did not inform about the date of commencement of sale of FCI wheat to bulk users. Last year, FCI had sold more than 10 lakh tonnes of wheat to bulk users under OMSS.
There was a jump in retail inflation in October
Retail inflation broke a 14-month record in October. Retail inflation increased to 6.21% in October due to costlier food items. This was 5.49 percent in the last month i.e. September. This is mainly due to the increase in the prices of food items. In this way, retail inflation has gone above the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s satisfactory level of six percent. In the same month last year, Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 4.87 percent.
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