New Delhi: Between Diwali and Chhath Puja, the price of flour has increased again.  Flour is 15 per cent more expensive. Not just flour, but wheat flour, semolina and dalia have also become costlier. While flour has become costlier by Rs 5 per kg, the prices of flour, semolina and dalia have been hiked by Rs 3-5 per kg. However, there is no clear reason for the increase in the price of flour this time. However, according to market experts, the shortage of wheat in the open market has led to such a situation.

The government has stopped supplying wheat to the open market. Therefore, traders have to buy wheat at a higher rate, due to which such prices have increased. Since Holi this year, flour has become costlier in the market. The thing is that even before the wheat harvest in the country, the Russia-Ukraine war had started. Therefore, the price of wheat was increasing not only in India but all over the world. Therefore, it also had an impact on the Indian market.

Apart from this, this year, the farmers sold their wheat at a price much higher than the MSP. So the flour has been growing by more than Rs. 5 since then. Apart from this, the government also introduced non-branded flour and flour under GST. However, the only concession was that no GST will be levied on packets above 25 kg. Therefore, the wheat packets coming to the open market were saved from GST because they were 50 kg. However, the traders had then made flour costlier by Rs 2 per kg.

Last week, the government hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat by Rs 110 per quintal for the year. However, it is worth mentioning here that wheat is already being sold at a price higher than this price in the market. However traders have increased the price of flour by Rs 5 per kg. As a result, the price of open flour available in the market has gone up from Rs 30 to Rs 35 per kg, while the price of flour sold at Rs 32 per kg has now gone up to Rs 35 per kg. As a result, the price of semolina has become expensive by Rs 3 to 5 per kg.

According to the report, there is now a severe shortage of wheat in the open market. The millers who had already kept the stock are running the work on the old stock. The government also has a stock of 222 lakh tonnes of wheat. While it is a buffer stock, the quantity is slightly higher than normal. Therefore, the FCI has stopped the allotment of wheat to the millers. Therefore, the price of flour has increased again in the market.