The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has floated bids from 620 depots across the country to sell a total 11.72 lakh tonnes (lt) of wheat during the third round of e-auction, which is scheduled to take place on next Wednesday.
“For the third e-auction, bidders who have registered themselves on the e-portal of M Junction by 10:00 PM, February 17, will be allowed to participate. The last date for deposit and uploading of earnest money deposit (EMD) is February 21 and e-auction will start at 11:00 AM on February 22,” the Food Ministry said on Saturday.
The Ministry said a total of 12.98 lt of wheat were sold during the previous two rounds of the e-auction and as much as 8.96 lt has been lifted by the successful bidders. This, the Ministry said, resulted in the cooling down of prices of wheat and atta. A total of 25 lt has been approved for sales through e-auction, while another 5 lt has been earmarked for cooperatives and State governments to directly lift at reserve prices.
The government has been aggressively trying to offload as much wheat as possible in the open market through a well distribution plan with a cap of maximum 3,000 tonnes per bidder to lift through the auction, which has been scheduled on a weekly basis.
On February 17, the Ministry reduced reserve prices of wheat by Rs 2/kg. Accordingly, the reserve prices are Rs 2,150/quintal for fair average (FAQ) quality and Rs 2,125/quintal for Under Relaxed Specifications (URS) category in the third round of e-auction.
Earlier on February 10, the government had fixed the reserve prices of wheat at Rs 2,300/quintal for URS and Rs 2,350/quintal for FAQ quality, uniform all across the country, changing the previous rates which also included additional freight costs from Bhopal or Ludhiana till the depot.
