Centre claims ban has pulled down prices

The government today claimed that prices of wheat, sugar and pulses have declined as a result of the decision to liberalise the import and ban export of these items.

Spot prices of wheat have declined by 6.3 per cent between February 1 and July 13 "" from Rs 922 a quintal to Rs 864 a quintal "" following the government's move to import wheat. Retail prices dropped by 9 per cent in Delhi, from Rs 11 a kg to Rs 10 per kg, a press note issued today stated.

In Lucknow, retail prices of wheat had remained steady in the last 10 days with a marginal fall of 2.11 per cent.

In past one month, wheat prices declined in Bangalore by 3.33 per cent but increased in Bhopal by 11.11 per cent, Mumbai by 3.7 per cent and Bhubaneshwar by 4.35 per cent.

Spot prices of wheat were likely to soften further on physical arrival of imported wheat, while futures prices would depend on the quality and prices of wheat being contracted for import by private trade at 5 per cent import duty, the statement said.

In case of sugar, retail prices remained unchanged over the last ten days. But spot prices dropped by 1.5 per cent by July 13 from the level prevailing prior to the June 21 decision to allow the import of refined sugar at zero duty and ban sugar exports.

The retail prices declined by Re 1 per kg in Delhi, from Rs 22 to Rs 21 a kg. Futures prices of sugar also declined in the range of 1 to 7 per cent during this period.

In the last one month, retail prices of sugar have declined in Delhi and Bangalore by about 4.55 per cent, Shimla by 2.17 per cent, Bhopal by 2.33 per cent, Guwahati by 4.35 per cent, Bhubaneshwar by 2.27 per cent and Chennai by 2.50 per cent.

Over the year, the prices had risen at all centres in the range of 4.76 per cent (Agartala) to 15.59 per cent (Lucknow and Guwahati).

The prices of all pulses showed a drop in the week ending July 1, compared with last year's corresponding levels. In case of tur (arhar) dal, spot prices declined by 13.8 per cent and futures prices by 15.2 per cent between June 7 and July 13. Spot prices of gram dal declined by 7 per cent, while futures prices fell in the range of 14.3 to 16.7 per cent during this period.

The prices of urad dal dropped by 2.1 per cent and that of masoor dal by 6.5 per cent in the same period.

The futures prices of both urad and masoor declined in the range of 1.5 per cent to 10.3 per cent and 6.8 per cent to 8.3 per cent, respectively.

Retail prices of most of these items remained steady during this period, the government claimed.