Lok Sabha Question No. 472 (STARRED), answered on 2023-04-05
Subject: Increase in Prices of Essential Food Items
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Shiromani Ram, Rajveer Diler

## Government of India

## Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK  SABHA

STARRED QUESTION NO. *472 (OIH)

TO BE ANSWERED ON 05.04.2023

## INCREASE IN PRICES OF ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS

*472.  SHRI RAMSHIROMANI VERMA: SHRI RAJVEER DILER: (OIH)

Will  the Minister  of CONSUMER  AFFAIRS,  FOOD  AND  PUBLIC  DISTRIBUTION miHkksDrk ekeys] [kk| vkSj lkoZtfud forj.k ea=h be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the prices of essential food items have increased during the last three years and the current year;
- (b) if so, the details thereof, food item-wise along with the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether the role of hoarders/black-marketeers behind the increase in the  price of essential food items has come to the notice of the Government during the said period;
- (d) if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the  remedial  measures  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  stabilise/reduce  the  prices  of essential food items to protect the interests of the common people?

## ANSWER

## miHkksDrk ekeys] [kk| vkSj lkoZtfud forj.k ea=h ¼Jh ih;w"k xks;y½

THE MINISTER OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (e)  :   A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

*****

## STATEMENT  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (e)  OF  LOK  SABHA  STARRED QUESTION NO.*472 FOR 05.04.2023  REGARDING  INCREASE IN PRICES OF ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS.

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- (a)  &  (b)  :    The  Department  of  Consumer  Affairs  monitors  the  daily  prices  of  22  essential  food commodities. The all-India average retail prices of the 22 food commodities for the last three years are placed at Annexure. Prices of food commodities tend to be volatile as they are affected by several factors, such as mismatch in demand and supply, seasonality, supply chain constraints, artificial shortage created by hoarding and black marketing, rise in international prices etc. Sometimes slight disruptions in supply chain or damage due to heavy rains lead to spike in prices of agri-horticultural commodities.
- (c)  &  (d)    :    The  Essential  Commodities  Act,  1955  and  the  Prevention  of  Black  marketing  and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980, are enforced to deal with regulation of the production,  supply  and  distribution  of  essential  commodities  and  malpractices  like  black  marketing, hoarding and profiteering. To prevent hoarding and restrictive trade practices in respect of tur and urad, the  Government  has  issued  a  directive  to  all  the  States  and  UTs  to  enforce  stock  disclosure  by stockholders of under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and to also closely monitor and verify the stocks.
- (e) : In  order  to  manage  the  overall  food  security  of  the  country  and  control  the  increasing prices of foodgrains the Government amended the export policy of wheat from free to prohibited category on 13th May 2022 for restricting export of  Indian Wheat,  and from 12th July, 2022 the export of atta (wheat) is  subjected to  the  recommendation of  Inter-Ministerial Committee  (IMC) on export of  wheat. Further, the export of broken rice has been banned and export duty of 20% is imposed on non-Basmati rice except for parboiled rice w.e.f. 9 th September, 2022. The Government has also decided to offload 50 lakh metric tons of wheat under Open Market Disposal Scheme (OMSS) and sales to State Governments, Kendriya Bhandar, National Consumer Cooperative Federation (NCCF), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED), State Cooperatives/ Federations etc. to cool down the prices of wheat and atta.

Further, to augment domestic availability and moderate the prices of pulses, import of tur and urad have been kept under 'Free Category' till 31.03.2024 and import duty on masur has been reduced to zero till 31.03.2024. The import duty on tur has also been removed to facilitate smooth and seamless import. Stocks  of  chana  and  moong  from  the  Price  Support  Scheme  (PSS)  and  Price  Stabilisation  Fund  (PSF) buffer are continuously released in the market to moderate the prices. Chana from PSS and PSF are also being supplied to the States for welfare schemes at Rs.15/kg discount over the issue price.

Also, in order to stabilise the volatility in prices of onion, the Government procured a record 2.51 lakh metric tonnes of onions from Rabi-2022 crop under Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) and released it in major consumption centres during September, 2022 and January, 2023. For current year (FY 2023-24), the procurement of Rabi-2023 onion has been increased to 3.00 lakh metric tonnes.

To control the prices of edible oil, the Government reduced the basic import duty on crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil to zero and Agri-cess on these oils has been brought down to 5%. The basic duty on refined soyabean oil and refined sunflower oil has been reduced to 17.5% from the previous rate of 32.5% and the basic duty on refined palm oils has been reduced from 17.5% to 12.5%. The Government has also kept the import of refined palm oils under 'Free' category.

## ANNEXURE  STATEMENT  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  &  (b)  OF  LOK  SABHA STARRED  QUESTION  NO.*472  FOR  05.04.2023  REGARDING  INCREASE  IN  PRICES  OF ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS.

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## All India Retail Average Prices of 22 Essential Food Items.

(in Rs./kg)

|   S.No. | Commodities     |   2020 |   2021 |   2022 |
|---------|-----------------|--------|--------|--------|
|       1 | Rice            |  34.25 |  35.98 |  37.03 |
|       2 | Wheat           |  28.36 |  27.25 |  30.15 |
|       3 | Atta            |  30.81 |  30.75 |  34.5  |
|       4 | Gram Dal        |  68.59 |  75.26 |  73.66 |
|       5 | Tur Dal         |  95.2  | 105.5  | 107.3  |
|       6 | Urad Dal        | 101.8  | 107.9  | 106.6  |
|       7 | Moong Dal       | 103.5  | 103.9  | 102.6  |
|       8 | Masoor Dal      |  74.74 |  88.75 |  96.21 |
|       9 | Groundnut Oil   | 147    | 176.3  | 189.2  |
|      10 | Mustard Oil     | 123.3  | 170.7  | 182    |
|      11 | Vanaspati       |  92.27 | 131    | 150.2  |
|      12 | Soya Oil        | 102.8  | 147.3  | 158.4  |
|      13 | Sunflower Oil   | 114.2  | 164.4  | 178.2  |
|      14 | Palm Oil        |  92.14 | 128.3  | 134.8  |
|      15 | Potato          |  31.25 |  21.34 |  25.2  |
|      16 | Onion           |  35.88 |  32.52 |  28    |
|      17 | Tomato          |  33.66 |  32.63 |  36.61 |
|      18 | Sugar           |  39.85 |  40.62 |  41.87 |
|      19 | Gur             |  47.89 |  47.68 |  49.31 |
|      20 | Milk (Rs./Ltr.) |  46.52 |  49.11 |  52.81 |
|      21 | Tea Loose       | 224.7  | 279.8  | 282.5  |
|      22 | Salt            |  16.27 |  18.09 |  20.25 |