Centre to monitor wholesale and retail prices of 16 more food items daily

Allows states to buy rice for their schemes; starts selling tomatoes at Rs 60/kg in Delhi

Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday announced that the government will collect and monitor daily wholesale and retail prices of 16 more essential food commodities from August 1 to help it make policy interventions to stabilise rates.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has already been monitoring the daily prices of 22 essential food commodities from 550 centres across 34 states/Union Territories.

He also announced that henceforth, states can directly buy rice from the Food Corporation of India at Rs 2,800 per quintal without participating in the e-auction if they need it for their welfare schemes.

The Centre last year did not provide rice to states because of apprehensions of lower output given poor monsoon rains.

Karnataka had demanded rice last year for its welfare scheme, but it was rejected.

Joshi also said that the government will start selling tomatoes at a subsidised rate of Rs 50 per kg from Friday in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai retail markets as against Rs 60 per kg now to provide relief to the common man.

Meanwhile, the 16 food items which have been added to the list of those being monitored daily are bajra (whole), jowar (whole), ragi (whole), suji (wheat), maida (wheat), besan, ghee, butter (pasteurised), brinjal, egg, black pepper, coriander, cumin seed, red chillies, turmeric powder, and banana.

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

The minister also launched an updated 'PMS Mobile App Version 4.0', which will help price reporting centres report daily on 38 commodities.

The government was earlier monitoring 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, soya oil, palm oil, tea, milk, potato, onion, tomato, and salt.

The minister informed that the government has allocated Rs 10,000 crore under the price stabilisation fund (PSF).

The fund has been set up to tackle inflationary trends of identified agri-horticultural commodities like onion, potatoes, and pulses to protect the interests of consumers.