India leaves minimum export price on basmati rice unchanged

India ruled out any plan to increase the minimum export price of basmati rice for now, said country’s Agriculture and Food Minister on Thursday. Talking to reporters, after a high level ministerial panel’s meeting, Sharad Pawar said, the Commerce Ministry withdrawn the proposal and will continue to keep floor price at $900 a tonne. Earlier, the government decided to raise the floor price of basmati rice from current level to $ 1100 per tonne in order to boost domestic supply in the wake of shortage in output due to the weak monsoon. However, the government has envisaged another plan augment the supply of cheap food grains to poor in the country. Pawar said the Central government has drafted a law that ensures cheap food grains to poor in the country. The law would take to cabinet for the approval in the next week, said the Minister. Food prices rose 16.3% from a year earlier in the first week of March. Last month, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his annual budget speech that the food security law will be introduced soon, amid widespread concern that another year of bad monsoon could hit the country’s ability to feed its millions. India last year received the lowest monsoon rainfall in nearly four decades, which hit production of summer-sown crops, mainly of rice.