Food Corporation of India (FCI) will allocate 300,000 tonnes of wheat to three government agencies in January, which will convert the grain into flour and sell it to consumers at a subsidised rate under the Bharat Atta brand to battle inflation, Union food secretary Sanjeev Chopra said. Atta (wheat flour) prices continue to remain firm despite the government’s intervention at the retail level.The all-India average retail price of atta has increased to ₹36.5 a kg, according to data from the consumer affairs ministry. India’s retail inflation accelerated to a 4-month high of 5.69% in December, driven by an uptick in food prices.
Chopra said that the government aims to bring down prices in regions where the rates are higher than average. “In December, about 100,000 tonnes of wheat was offloaded as atta through three agencies—NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.), NCCF (National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd.) and Kendriya Bhandar. We are hoping to offload about 300,000 tonnes more wheat as atta to consumers through these three agencies in January,” Chopra told Mint in an interview.
