He also added that the proposal for easing restrictions on exports of white rice and parboiled rice is under consideration and the decision will come at an appropriate time.
“We are not anticipating any kind of price rise in any commodity during the festive season,” said Chopra, adding that the restoration of wheat for PMGKAY will add to the wheat availability, keeping a check on prices of the staple.
He also said that the government has asked edible oil companies to not pass on the burden of increased import duty till the current stock lasts as it was shipped on lower duty. The ministry expects the stocks imported at lower duties to last 45-50 days.
Last week, the government implemented an increase in the basic customs duty on various edible oils to support domestic oilseed prices. Effective September 14, 2024, the basic customs duty on crude soyabean oil, crude palm oil and crude sunflower oil has been raised to 20% from nil, making the effective duty on crude oils to 27.5%.
Additionally, the basic customs duty on refined palm oil, refined sunflower oil, and refined soyabean oil has been increased from 12.5% to 32.5%, making the effective duty on refined oils to 35.75%.Chopra said that there is ample availability of wheat in the market and there has been no decision taken on offloading from the government’s stock as of now.Talking about sugar he said that the demand of sugar industry for increasing minimum selling price is in process and a decision will be taken at an appropriate time.
Credit Guarantee Scheme
The government has decided to allocate a fund of Rs 1000 crore for a credit guarantee scheme for lenders who can then lend to farmers seeking loans from banks against the non-negotiable warehouse receipts (NWRs) to avoid distress sales of agricultural produce during the peak marketing season and to avoid the post-harvest storage loss.
A credit guarantee scheme (CGS-NPF) has been approved to instill confidence among the lenders to extend pledge finance against electronic Negotiable Warehouse Receipts (e-NWRs) to farmers and traders on the produce stored in WDRA registered warehouses, Chopra.
This scheme covers lending risk as well as warehousemen risk and is expected to improve trust on warehousemen to increase post harvest finance through e-NWRs, he added.
This scheme is expected to increase the pledge finance from the current level of Rs 3,962 crores to Rs 5,30,000 crores during next 10 years.