Govt to reduce Bharat Atta price by ₹2/kg in festive sop

All-India average wheat flour prices have increased 4.1% this year to touch ₹35.84 per kg

- Puja Das

The government plans to offload a quarter of a million tonnes of wheat into the country's vast food distribution system and offer cut-price whole wheat flour made from it in the run-up to the last festival season of its term.

Under the plan, the Centre will slash the price of its Bharat Atta brand to ₹27.50 per kg from the existing ₹29.50 a kg, a senior government official said. This comes against the backdrop of the all-India average wheat flour price rising 4.1% this year to ₹35.84 per kg.

"The Centre will offload 250,000 tonnes of wheat to Kendriya Bhandar, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India Ltd (NCCF) from its central pool and the semi-government and cooperative organizations will convert it to atta or wheat flour and then sell it to consumers through various retail outlets at ₹27.50 a kg," the official said.