NEW DELHI, Aug 1: A panel of Indian ministers will meet next week to assess the country’s grain stocks and review export curbs on rice, the trade minister said on Friday.

India, the world’s second-biggest rice producer, has slapped an export tax of Rs8,000 per ton on basmati and banned overseas sales of other grades of rice to rein in inflation which has soared to a 13-year high of nearly 12 per cent.

We are having a meeting of a group of ministers next week to review the food stock situation in the country. Everything will come up for review but relaxation will depend on food stocks, Kamal Nath told reporters.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar this week said it was too early to say if rice export curbs would be eased this year despite a revival in monsoon rains and prospects of a good rice harvest in October-September.

Indian farmers plant summer-sown rice, oilseeds, corn, cotton, and sugarcane during the monsoon months of June and July.

India produces more than 95 million tons of rice annually.

The country has also banned exports of wheat, vegetable oils and cut import tax on a host of commodities to cool prices.

—Reuters