Wheat imports duty free; Govt plans to curb inflation

New Delhi, July 18: To bring the price situation under control, the Union Government today announced that wheat imports by the State Trading Corporation (STC) would be duty free and said all possible steps are being taken to improve domestic availability of key agricultural commodities.

The commodities whose domestic supplies are sought to be augmented are-- wheat, pulses and sugar.

The Committee of Secretaries is meeting here this morning to review the price scenario. Those who are to attend the meeting are: Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi, Secretary, Co-ordination, G S Sahni, Secretary, Consumer Affairs, L Mansingh, Secretary, Food and Public Distribution, T Nand Kumar, Commerce Secretary S N Menon, Revenue Secretary K M Chandrasekhra, Information and Broadcasting Secretary S K Arora, and Principal Adviser Agricultural Co-operation S M Jharwal.

A senior official of the Ministry of Finance said the government had reduced import duty on bulk wheat from 50 per cent to five per cent.

The government has fully exempted pulses from customs duty. The exemption is available up to March 31,2007.

UNI