Besides meeting the requirement of the Public Distribution System (PDS) and other foodgrains based welfare schemes of the Government and maintaining a buffer stock, foodgrains from the Central Pool are also released to the open market to augment the availability especially in the deficit regions and during the lean season of supply so as to have a moderating effect on the open market prices. The sale of foodgrains from the Central Pool in the open market is also helpful in reducing the inventory of foodgrains with the FCI and other procuring agencies and hence saving carrying costs.
Open Market Sale of Wheat : Wheat is sold in the open market under the Open Market Sale Scheme (Domestic) (OMSS (D)) in which the commodity is made available to buyers throughout the country at pre-fixed prices. The prices of wheat under the scheme is presently determined by the Government on the recommendations of the High-Level Committee (HLC) of the FCI which is an Inter-Departmental body comprising of representatives from the FCI and other concerned Ministries/Departments of the Government of India. In the present price structure, prices have been fixed on State/FCI region-wise and crop year-wise. Variation in prices from one State/Region to another is mainly due to freight charges from the producing regions of Punjab and Haryana. The prices of wheat of different crop years also vary since prices of older stocks have been fixed at lower levels than those of the newer stocks in order to facilitate off-take of the older stocks. Bulk consumers like Roller Flour Mills, etc., are the main beneficiaries of this scheme. A quantity of 9.23 lakh MT of rice was sold in the open market during the year 2003-04.
Open Market Sale of Rice : Old stocks of rice and the stocks procured under the relaxed specifications (URS) which are not acceptable to the State Governments under the TPDS and other welfare schemes are being sold through tenders from time to time. These tenders are finalised and rates are approved by the HLC of the FCI. A quantity of 4.05 lakh MT of rice was sold in the open market during the year 2003-04.
