New Delhi, Jun 13 (IANS): A day after the government imposed stock limit on wheat till March 31, 2024 to bring down its prices and prevent hoarding, Secretary, Food and Public Distribution Sanjeev Chopra on Tuesday asked states to obtain disclosures of wheat stocks from the wholesalers and traders.

This order was given to all state Food Secretaries during a meeting which Chopra undertook via video conferencing.

The directive was also given to check unfair practices of any kind by big chain retailers and traders to bring transparency in the availability of wheat.

The meeting also in detail discussed the stock limit applied on wheat stocks by the Centre on June 12.

According to the order, the stock limit on wheat for processors has been fixed at 75 per cent of annual installed capacity or quantity equivalent to monthly installed capacity multiplied by the remaining months of 2023-24, whichever is less.

Wholesalers and traders can keep 3,000 metric tonnes of wheat at any given time. Retailers can keep 10 MT.

In the case of big retail chains, the stock limit is 10 MT for each outlet and 3,000 MT for all outlets of a chain.

In case the stocks held by retailers and traders are higher than the prescribed limit, then they have to bring the same to the prescribed stock limits within 30 days of issue of this notification.

States have been given directions to ensure that all relevant entities subject to the stock limits declare and update the stock position of wheat regularly every Friday on a government portal and to immediately issue instructions for strict compliance of the stock limit as per the stock limit order.

In the meeting, the Centre also informed about the decision of offloading the wheat (15 LMT of wheat in the first phase) and rice under open market sale scheme (domestic) or OMSS (D), which is further expected to cool down the rising price of wheat and rice along with the products derived from them.