Lok Sabha Question No. 77 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-02-02
Subject: Hike in Price of Commodities
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Badruddin Ajmal

## Government of India

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

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 77

TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.02.2022

## HIKE IN PRICE OF COMMODITIES

## 77. SHRI M. BADRUDDIN AJMAL:

## 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  Government  has  taken  note  of  the  fact  that  there  has  been  unusual  hike  in  price  of essential  commodities  like  rice,  pulse,  edible  oils,  food  grains,  potato,  onion,  tomato,  etc.  in  the country which is creating problem for common people of the country;
- (b) if  so,  the  steps  taken/to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  find  out  the  reasons  behind  this  and  the measures adopted to control this situation; and
- (c) the details of prices of these items during the last five years?

## ANSWER

## miHkksDrk ekeys] [kk| vkSj lkoZtfud forj.k jkT; ea=h (श्री अश्विनी क ु मार चौबे)

## THE MINISTER OF STATE CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a) to (c) : The Government monitors the retail and wholesale prices of 22 essential food commodities submitted  by  the  179  price  monitoring  centres  that  have  been  set  up  with  Central  assistance  by  State Governments and UT Administrations across the country.

Taking  into  account  price  trends,  the  Government  takes  various  measures  from  time  to  time  to augment domestic availability and stabilize prices of essential food commodities. These steps, inter alia , include  releases  from  the  buffer  to  cool  down  prices,  imposition  of  stock  limits,  monitoring  of  stocks declared  by  entities  to  prevent  hoarding  as  also  requisite  changes  in  trade  policy  instruments  like rationalization of import duty, changes in import quota, restrictions on exports of the commodity etc.

In May, 2021 advisories were issued to States/UTs to monitor prices of essential food commodities and  to  ensure  disclosure  of  pulses  stocks  held  by  millers,  importers  and  traders  under  the  Essential Commodities  Act,  1955.  Imposition  of  stock  limit  on  all  pulses  except  Moong  was  notified  on  2.7.21. Thereafter, an amended order was issued on 19.7.21 imposing stock limits on four pulses, namely, Tur, Urad, Masur, Chana for a period up to 31.10.2021.

To improve availability and stabilise prices of pulses, the Government has allowed import of Tur, Urad and Moong under 'Free category' w.e.f May 15, 2021 till October 31, 2021 in order to ensure smooth and seamless imports. The Free regime was thereafter extended till March 31, 2022; the last date for Bill of Lading is March 31, 2022, and for Customs clearance, it is June 30, 2022. This policy measure has been supported  with  facilitation  measures  and  close  monitoring  of  its  implementation  by  the  concerned Departments/organisations. The import policy measures have resulted in substantial increase in import of Tur, Urad and Moong as compared to the corresponding period for the past two years. In order to soften the impact  of  higher  international  prices  on  domestic  consumers,  the  Government  reduced  the  basic  import duty on Masur from 10% to zero and AIDC (Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess) from 20% to 10% from 27th July, 2021. To augment the availability of pulses in the market, 3 Lakh Metric Ton of Chana stock has been released between June and August, 2021 through open market sales and to stabilise prices, futures trading in Chana has been suspended from 16th August, 2021. State Governments have been supplied pulses from the buffer on an ongoing basis for their nutrition and welfare programmes.

In order to stabilise retail prices of onion, a buffer stock of 2.08 LMT onion has been built in 202122. Open market releases of onion from the buffer had been targeted towards States/Cities where prices are increasing  over  the  previous  month  and  also  in  source  markets  to  augment  the  availability  in  these  key mandis  and  thereby  reduce  retail  prices.  States/UTs  had  been  offered  onion  at  Rs.21/kg  ex-storage locations  and  same  has  been  lifted  by  some  States.  Through  these  measures,  the  Government  has  made effective interventions for containing the prices of onion.

In  order  to  improve the  domestic availability of  edible oils and to keep  prices under control, the Government has rationalized the duty structure on edible oils by reducing the effective duties. As per the notification dated 14-10-2021, the total duty on crude palm oil has been reduced from 22.5% to 7.5%, and on crude soyabean oil and sunflower oil it has been reduced from 22.5% to 5%. The basic duty on RBD palmolein  oil,  refined  soyabean  oil  and  refined  sunflower  oil  has  been  reduced  from  32.5%  to  17.5%. Thereafter, the basic duty on refined palm oil has been further reduced from 17.5% to 12.5% w.e.f 21-122021.  Futures  trading  in  essential  commodities  relating  to  food  security  has  been  suspended  to  curb speculative  trading.  Stock  limits  on  edible  oils  and  oilseeds  have  been  imposed  for  a  period  upto  31st March, 2022 to prevent hoarding.

Further,  the  Government  has  issued  advisory  to  States/UTs  to  set  up  the  State-level  Price Stabilisation  Fund  (PSF) corpus with central assistance, and has requested States which have set up the Fund  already,  to  make  appropriate  interventions  for  cooling  down  retail  prices  of  essential  food commodities.

All-India  Average  Retail  Prices  of  22  essential  food  commodities  for  the  last  five  years  are  at Annexure .

*****

## ANNEXURE

## ANNEXURE  REFERRED  IN  REPLY  TO  PARTS  (a)  TO  (c)  OF  LOK  SABHA  UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 77 FOR 02.02.2022 REGARDING HIKE IN PRICES OF COMMODITIES.

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| ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   | ALL-INDIA RETAIL AVERAGE PRICES OF 22 ESSENTIAL FOOD ITEMS (Rs./Kg.)   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| S.No.                                                                  | Commodities                                                            | 2016-17                                                                | 2017-18                                                                | 2018-19                                                                | 2019-20                                                                | 2020-21                                                                | 2021-22*                                                               |
| 1                                                                      | Rice                                                                   | 27.71                                                                  | 29.57                                                                  | 30.09                                                                  | 32.46                                                                  | 35.26                                                                  | 35.65                                                                  |
| 2                                                                      | Wheat                                                                  | 23.80                                                                  | 23.75                                                                  | 24.74                                                                  | 27.50                                                                  | 28.22                                                                  | 26.98                                                                  |
| 3                                                                      | Atta (Wheat)                                                           | 25.64                                                                  | 26.08                                                                  | 26.80                                                                  | 28.95                                                                  | 31.17                                                                  | 30.50                                                                  |
| 4                                                                      | Gram Dal                                                               | 98.21                                                                  | 80.00                                                                  | 65.11                                                                  | 65.92                                                                  | 70.42                                                                  | 75.79                                                                  |
| 5                                                                      | Tur/Arhar Dal                                                          | 121.19                                                                 | 78.66                                                                  | 71.17                                                                  | 84.90                                                                  | 99.57                                                                  | 105.76                                                                 |
| 6                                                                      | Urad Dal                                                               | 128.57                                                                 | 85.33                                                                  | 70.23                                                                  | 83.77                                                                  | 104.49                                                                 | 107.70                                                                 |
| 7                                                                      | Moong Dal                                                              | 89.14                                                                  | 76.24                                                                  | 74.03                                                                  | 86.27                                                                  | 106.01                                                                 | 103.50                                                                 |
| 8                                                                      | Masoor Dal                                                             | 81.60                                                                  | 66.81                                                                  | 61.33                                                                  | 64.12                                                                  | 78.04                                                                  | 89.98                                                                  |
| 9                                                                      | Groundnut Oil (Packed)                                                 | 133.42                                                                 | 129.18                                                                 | 125.80                                                                 | 132.57                                                                 | 153.62                                                                 | 178.58                                                                 |
| 10                                                                     | Mustard Oil (Packed)                                                   | 109.41                                                                 | 106.04                                                                 | 106.81                                                                 | 111.92                                                                 | 130.63                                                                 | 174.58                                                                 |
| 11                                                                     | Vanaspati (Packed)                                                     | 75.83                                                                  | 78.09                                                                  | 80.73                                                                  | 82.26                                                                  | 99.03                                                                  | 133.84                                                                 |
| 12                                                                     | Soya Oil (Packed)                                                      | 83.77                                                                  | 85.62                                                                  | 90.29                                                                  | 94.04                                                                  | 109.45                                                                 | 150.99                                                                 |
| 13                                                                     | Sunflower Oil (Packed)                                                 | 94.71                                                                  | 93.13                                                                  | 97.33                                                                  | 101.87                                                                 | 123.89                                                                 | 168.54                                                                 |
| 14                                                                     | Palm Oil (Packed)                                                      | 70.15                                                                  | 71.14                                                                  | 77.13                                                                  | 79.44                                                                  | 98.79                                                                  | 130.84                                                                 |
| 15                                                                     | Potato                                                                 | 18.78                                                                  | 15.11                                                                  | 19.35                                                                  | 20.84                                                                  | 30.54                                                                  | 21.14                                                                  |
| 16                                                                     | Onion                                                                  | 15.62                                                                  | 27.27                                                                  | 19.18                                                                  | 39.47                                                                  | 34.73                                                                  | 30.46                                                                  |
| 17                                                                     | Tomato                                                                 | 24.26                                                                  | 32.77                                                                  | 22.32                                                                  | 31.45                                                                  | 33.44                                                                  | 33.11                                                                  |
| 18                                                                     | Sugar                                                                  | 40.37                                                                  | 42.38                                                                  | 38.26                                                                  | 38.92                                                                  | 39.91                                                                  | 40.74                                                                  |
| 19                                                                     | Gur                                                                    | 42.74                                                                  | 44.98                                                                  | 42.71                                                                  | 45.16                                                                  | 48.24                                                                  | 47.57                                                                  |
| 20                                                                     | Milk (Rs./Ltr.)                                                        | 40.20                                                                  | 41.91                                                                  | 42.53                                                                  | 44.36                                                                  | 47.24                                                                  | 49.21                                                                  |
| 21                                                                     | Tea Loose                                                              | 198.86                                                                 | 204.46                                                                 | 209.46                                                                 | 214.82                                                                 | 238.36                                                                 | 280.57                                                                 |
| 22                                                                     | Salt Pack (Iodised)                                                    | 14.99                                                                  | 15.11                                                                  | 15.28                                                                  | 15.50                                                                  | 16.74                                                                  | 18.17                                                                  |