The Centre on Wednesday announced revision in wheat stock-holding norms, reducing further the maximum quantity that wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers and processors can keep at any point of time. The move may help the government to moderate prices.

“As part of continuous efforts to moderate prices of wheat, the Central government has decided to revise the wheat stock limit applicable until March 31, 2025,” the food ministry said in a statement.

Maximum cap

According to the revised norms, any retailer can hold a maximum of 5 tonne at its outlet, whereas it was capped at 10 tonne in June, when the stock limit was announced, “to manage the overall food security and to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation.” The norm for retailer was unchanged in September when it was revised last. Big chain retailer, too, is allowed to hold maximum 5 tonne at each of their outlet, as against 10 tonne earlier and this limit is also applicable at depot level. For instance, the big chain retailer having 5 outlets can keep maximum 25 tonnes including at its depot.

The stock limit for wholesalers has been cut to 1,000 tonne from 2,000 tonne earlier. Similarly, processors will be allowed to maintain 50 per cent instead of 60 per cent of their monthly installed capacity multiplied by the remaining months till April 2025.

The food ministry has said that all wheat stocking entities are required to register on the wheat stock limit portal (https://evegoils.nic.in/wsp/login) and update the stock position every Friday. The stakeholders (traders and processors ) have been given 15 days time effective from December 11 to conform to the revised limit if they have stocks higher than the prescribed maximum quantity.

Though the food ministry said that any entity which is found to have not registered on the portal or violates the stock limits will be subject to suitable punitive action under the Essential Commodities Act, experts said that there is hardly any enforcement as it is a matter related to state government to implement the stock limit.

Availability issue?

The ministry said that it is maintaining close watch over the stock position of wheat to control prices and ensure easy availability in the country. “There is ample availability of wheat in the country,” it added.

However, traders said that the tightening of stock limit shows there is issue with availability and the government has already admitted price rise is a concern and the release of nearly 1 lakh tonne (lt) from the Central Pool stock last week though e-auction is yet to show any sign of cooling off in the market.

“A marginal dip in prices at some select places were mainly because of current sowing data released on December 9 which showed an increase in acreage,” said a trader highlighting some softening at a few places this week.

According to data maintained by the Consumer Affairs Ministry, the retail inflation was 4.2 per cent and 6.3 per cent in wholesale as of December 11, 2024, compared with the year-ago period. The all-India average retail price of wheat was ₹32.32/kg and that of wholesale was ₹2,928/quintal on Wednesday.