Worried over rising food inflation, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called a special meeting of food, agriculture ministers and other senior officials to discuss prices of essential commodities like pulses and tomato, and also to chalk out an immediate plan to insulate poor people from increasing prices of food items.
Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, The Cabinet secretary, the chief economic advisor and secretaries of the departments concerned, including finance, food and consumer affairs are slated to attend the meeting.
The price of vegetables is a major concern for the government, with the Wholesale Price Index or WPI data for may showing that vegetable inflation rose sharply from 2.21 per cent in April to 12.94 per cent. The ministers will review the food price situation and discuss steps to keep in check prices of essential commodities, including pulses. The government has procured 1.15 lakh tonnes pulses directly from farmers as of now for creating a buffer stock of 1.5 lakh tonnes this year. It is also importing pulses through state-owned trading agencies like MMTC. So far, 38,500 tonnes of lentils have been contracted for import.
The meeting will take stock of the progress made in pulse imports, discuss creation of buffer stock and lifting of the stock by state governments for retail distribution at subsidised rates also discuss the import and export duty on sugar, wheat and edible oils.
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