Centre asks traders, wholesales, retailers to declare wheat stock every Friday from 1 April

The central government asked traders, wholesalers, retailers, chain retailers and processors in all states and union territories to declare their stock position of wheat starting 1 April 2025 as part of its effort to manage food security and prevent unscrupulous speculation.

The government has mandated that all wheat stocking entities register on the designated portal (https://evegoils.nic.in/wsp/login) and update their stock positions every Friday, according to a statement. All the respective legal entities have to ensure that stock are regularly and correctly disclosed on the portal.

The wheat stock limit, or the maximum amount of wheat such entities can hold, is expiring on 31 March 2025 for all categories of entities in states and UTs.

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The Department of Food and Public Distribution is watching the wheat stock position to prevent speculation, control prices and ensure easy availability in the country.

According to the second advance estimates, released by the ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare on 10 March, wheat production in the rabi season of 2024-25 is expected to be a record 115.43 million tonnes on account of strong acreage and favourable weather.

The central government is targeting to procure 31 million tonnes of wheat during the ensuing rabi marketing season of 2025-26. Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are the major contributing states to the central pool. Already, wheat procurement has started in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, although the arrival is yet to pace up. In Punjab and Haryana, the arrival of the crop will start in different mandis of the states from April onwards.

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Recently the government revised wheat stock limits for traders, retailers, and chain store retailers. According to an official statement from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the Centre has significantly revised the stock limits on wheat for different entities. Traders and wholesalers will now be allowed to stock up to 250 tonnes, down from previous limit of 1,000 tonnes.

Retailers' stock limit has been reduced to 4 tonnes per outlet from 5 tonnes. Similarly, big chain retailers, previously allowed to stock 5 tonnes per outlet, can now stock only 4 tonnes of wheat, with an overall cap based on the number of their outlets.

The limit for processors remains unchanged at 50% of their monthly installed capacity multiplied by the remaining months until April 2025, it said.

(Dhirendra contributed to the story)