Government admits inability to tame food prices
14 Aug 2010
The government on Friday admitted that retail prices of food items like pulses, edible oil, milk and vegetables have been rising in the last six months, indicating that its efforts to contain prices of essential items have not yielded much by way of results.
''There are few items (essential commodities) where there is no improvement in prices…retail prices of pulses such as urad dal and moong dal, edible oils like groundnut oil and vanaspati, milk and potato have shown a marginal increase in the last six months,'' Pawar told the Rajya Sabha during question hour.
Pawar said retail prices of certain pulses and edible oils have increased due to hardening of global rates. India is the biggest importer of pulses, needing nearly four million tonnes of import to bridge the demand-prodcuiton gap.
The wholesale prices of pulses, the primary source of protein for most Indians, are up nearly 6 per cent in the current fiscal, after having shot up over 30 per cent last year.
The prices of urad and moong dal had increased by Rs3 a kg in the last six months. Groundnut oil prices were still ruling firm at Rs115 a kg and milk at Rs 24 a kg. But sugar prices came down to Rs30 now from Rs45 a kg a couple of weeks ago, Pawar said.
''The cost of milk has been increasing largely due to a jump in prices of cattle feed and fodder in last one year. Besides, milk consumption has increased due to an increase in the disposable income of rural population as a result of implementation of employment generation schemes,'' he said.
