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| Govt to mull lifting ban on wheat export |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Feb 20, 2009, 12:38 IST |
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Faced with the problem of surplus wheat stocks, the Government will in the next 10 days decide on lifting ban on export of wheat products and increasing stock limits.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said against the requirement of 11-12 million tonnes of wheat a year for public distribution system (PDS), the stocks in Government godowns is 226 lakh tonnes.
Similarly, against the buffer norm of 4 million tonnes, the current buffer stock was about 13 million tonnes, he said.
"We are faced with the question of how to dispose this (stock)," he said. "Too much stock is a problem for this country today."
According to advance estimates, wheat production will be comfortable this year. "We should be ready to procure more (wheat) than last year," he said.
Pawar said the government had previously placed restrictions on wheat to ensure adequate availability of the foodgrain. These included open import without duty, banning of export of wheat products and placing of stock limits.
With adequate availability, there has been suggestions of removing these restrictions, he said. "We would be able to take a view on all these issues in 10 days' time."
Pawar said the Government has raised the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat to Rs 1,080 per quintal this year from Rs 1,000 per quintal previously.
Wheat price in the open market was the same as a year back because of ample stocks with the Government and largest ever procurement and production.
"Price of wheat is not a serious problem in our country because of ample stock availability," he said.
Quoting a report of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the minister said because of high support price of wheat, Indian grain is unlikely to be competitive in the world market without an export subsidy.
Pawar said currently the production of wheat was sufficient to meet the domestic demand.
However, to cope up with the expected increase in demand during the 11th Five Year Plan Period (2007 to 2012), it has been targeted to enhance production of wheat to 83.61 million tonnes by 2012 through the National Food Security Mission.
"For 2007-08 to 2011-12, an outlay of Rs 1,920.33 crore has been provided for increasing wheat production through the Mission," he said.
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