CCEA likely to approve Rs 50/quintal increase in wheat MSP on October 17

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs ( CCEA) is likely to approve this Thursday a proposal to raise the minimum support price ( MSP) of wheat by Rs 50 per quintal to Rs 1,400 for the year starting April 2014.

Besides wheat, it will also take a call on increasing the MSP of other five rabi (winter) crops -- barley, gram, masur, mustardseed and safflower for next year.

"The CCEA meeting is scheduled for this Thursday. The MSP for rabi crops is on the agenda list and it is expected to be approved," sources said.

In the note, the Agriculture Ministry has proposed a support price of wheat at Rs 1,400 per quintal, barley at Rs 1,100 per quintal, gram at Rs 3,100 per quintal, masur at Rs 2,950 per quintal, mustardseed at Rs 3,050 per quintal and safflower at Rs 3,000 per quintal for 2014-15.

According to sources, the ministry has proposed a marginal increase of 3.7 per cent in wheat MSP to Rs 1,400 per quintal for the 2014-15 marketing year (April-March), as against Rs 1350 per quintal this year.

The ministry has recommended a small raise in support price of wheat because it felt that the existing MSP was comfortably higher than the projected cost of production besides there is very high domestic inflation in cereals.

The ministry's proposal on wheat MSP is, however, lower than Rs 1,450/quintal suggested by the government's advisory body Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP).

However, state governments have suggested wheat MSP in the range of Rs 1,450-3200 per quintal for next year.

The ministry's proposal is in line with the suggestion of CACP in case of barley and safflower only, while the raise proposed for MSP of other rabi crops is in range of Rs 50-200 per quintal but much lower than the Commission.

For the ongoing 2013-14 marketing year, support price of barley has been fixed at Rs 980 per quintal, gram at Rs 3,000 per quintal, masur at Rs 2,900 per quintal, mustardseed at Rs 3,000 per quintal and safflower at Rs 2,800 per quintal.

The rabi (winter) season starts with the onset of North- east monsoon in October. Rabi crops are generally sown between October to February and harvested from April.