Government think tank, NITI Aayog, on Tuesday said it’s looking at different implementation proposals on Minimum Support Price (MSP) mechanism.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Ramesh Chand, member, Niti Aayog, said price support scheme for pulses, oil seeds, wheat etc. will be expanded to other crops also.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last week announced that the the Cabinet will approve the hike in MSP to at least 1.5 times of the production cost in the forthcoming meeting.

According to sources, the government has delayed the announcement of MSP of kharif crops, the sowing of which has already begun, as it was weighing whether to take such a big political decision considering huge financial burden on the exchequer, the sources said.

The agriculture ministry has proposed higher rate than what has been recommended by the government advisory body CACP considering growing farm distress because of fall in prices of most crops owing to bumper production, they said.

In this year's general budget, the government had announced that it would fix a support price at least 1.5 times of the cost of the production. This was the BJP's poll promise in 2014 general elections.

According to sources, about Rs 200 per quintal increase has been proposed in the MSP of paddy (common grade) for the 2018-19 crop year (July-June).

For the current year, MSP of paddy has been fixed at Rs 1,550 per quintal for common grade and Rs 1,590 per quintal for Grade A variety.

Normally, the MSP is announced just before the start of the sowing to help farmers choose the crop they want to sow. Sowing of kharif crops begins with the onset of southwest monsoon and harvesting from October.

(With inputs from PTI)