Concerned about the rising prices of essential commodities like pulses and vegetables, the government has decided to boost supply through its newly created buffer stock and imports. The prices of pulses are ruling at Rs 170 per kg and tomato prices have spiked to Rs 100 a kg.
At a high-level meeting, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley discussed the reasons for the spike in prices and ways to control it with Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
The ministers discussed reasons for the spike in prices and possible options available to check the same at the meeting. Among the other issues discussed were the releasing more pulses from the buffer stock whenever there is a demand from the states as well as importing pulses from Mayanmar and Africa to deal with the price rise.
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 Finance Minister also said that imports via public and private agencies should be strengthened to meet the deficit. 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.