Center to monitor wholesale and retail prices of 16 additional food items per day

2 minutes of reading Last updated: August 01, 2024 | 19:29 IST

Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday announced that from August 1, the government will collect and monitor wholesale and retail prices of 16 essential food items on a daily basis, which will help it take steps to stabilise rates.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has already been monitoring prices of 22 essential food items from 550 centres across 34 states/union territories on a daily basis.

He also announced that from now on, states will be able to buy rice directly from the Food Corporation of India at a rate of Rs 2,800 per quintal without having to go through e-auction if they require it for their welfare programmes.

Last year, the central government did not supply rice to states amid fears that production would be lower due to poor monsoon rainfall.

Karnataka had demanded rice last year for its welfare programme, but the request was rejected.

Joshi also said the government will start selling tomatoes at a subsidised price of Rs 50 per kg in retail markets in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai from Friday, up from the current price of Rs 60 per kg, to provide relief to the common man.

Meanwhile, the 16 food items that have been added to the list of items under daily monitoring are: bajra (whole), jowar (whole), ragi (whole), suji (wheat), maida (wheat), besan, ghee, butter (pasteurised), eggplant, egg, black pepper, coriander, cumin, red chillies, turmeric powder and banana.

The Price Monitoring Division (PMD) within the department is responsible for tracking the prices of selected essential commodities.

The Minister also launched an updated version of the PMS 4.0 mobile application, which will facilitate price reporting centres in reporting 38 commodities on a daily basis.

The government had earlier monitored 22 commodities: rice, wheat, atta, gram dal, tur (arhar) dal, urad dal, moong dal, masur dal, sugar, gur, groundnut oil, mustard oil, vanaspati, sunflower oil, soybean oil, palm oil, tea, milk, potatoes, onion, tomatoes and salt.

The minister informed that the government has allocated Rs 10,000 crore for the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF).

The Fund was created to counteract inflationary trends in certain agro-horticultural products such as onions, potatoes and pulses in order to protect the interests of consumers.

(Only the headline and image of the report may have been edited by the Business Standard team; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)

First published: August 01, 2024 | 19:29 IST