The Indian government Friday rejected a proposal to impose duty on wheat import in the wake of high food inflation and reviewed preparedness to implement the proposed food security law.
An empowered group of ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, also extended up to September-end the scheme to sell wheat and rice for both retail and bulk consumers to tame prices. The open market sale scheme (OMSS)
was to end on June 30.
Though the country is set to harvest a bumper wheat crop of over 80 million tonnes, the EGoM decided to continue with zero import duty regime as the food inflation is still hovering over 17 per cent, sources said.
Besides, the government is facing the heat from major opposition parties, which have joined hands to bring a cut motion in Parliament on Finance bill.
As for the proposed food security law, a pet project of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the EGoM has mandated the Planning Commission to come out with a comprehensive data on the exact number and size of the families living below poverty
line (BPL).
"The Planning Commission has been tasked to give detailed presentation on the BPL families," an EGoM member said after the meeting.
He said the government needs to know what is the size of a BPL family. "Is it 4.5 or 5.5 persons per family," he said.
EGoM also discussed ways to increase the storage capacity, essentially for wheat. "Involvement of the private sector in storage is also being looked into," he said.
Food Corporation of India is facing crunch of storage capacity and there are reports that wheat is lying in the open at several places in the largest growing states of Punjab and Haryana.
Even for implementing the food security law which aims to provide 25 or 35 kg of wheat or rice at Rs 3 per kg to each Below Proverty Line family, the government would need to ensure adequate storage capacity, the minister said.