Lok Sabha Question No. 2141 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-02
Subject: Prices of Vegetables and Foodgrains
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: B. Y. Raghavendra, L.S. Tejasvi Surya, Umesh G. Jadhav, Prathap Simha

## Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

## Government of India Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2141

TO BE ANSWERED ON 02.08.2023

## PRICES OF VEGETABLES AND FOODGRAINS

2141.   SHRI B.Y. RAGHAVENDRA: SHRI L.S. TEJASVI SURYA: DR. UMESH G. JADHAV:

SHRI PRATHAP SIMHA:

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

- (a) whether the prices of essential commodities like vegetables, foodgrains, pulses, specially tomato and edible oils have increased sharply resulting in consumer inflation in recent months;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor; and
- (c) the  steps  taken  or  proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  control  inflation  along  with  the advisories  issued  to  States  to  check  the  stock  limit  of  these  items  by  the  traders  beyond  certain capacity?

## ANSWER

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

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

(a) & (b) :  The Department of Consumer Affairs monitors the daily prices of 22 essential food commodities including potato, onion and tomato among vegetables; rice, wheat and atta among foodgrains; groundnut oil, mustard  oil,  soya  oil,  sunflower  oil,  vanaspati  and  palm  oil  among  edible  oils.  The  prices  of  most  of  the vegetables, pulses and edibles monitored by the Department have either declined or remained stable with the exception  of  commodities  like  tomato  and  tur  dal.  Among  vegetables,  the  all-India  average  retail  price  of potato is about 12% lower that of last year while the price of onion about 5% higher than last year. The prices of tomato has increased in recent weeks on account of a combination of factors like crop seasonality, white fly disease in Kolar, instantaneous arrival of monsoon rains in northern part of the country which adversely affected tomato crops in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and logistics disruptions in isolated areas due to heavy rains. The all-India  average  retail  prices  of  rice,  wheat  and  atta  have  recorded  an  increase  of  10.5%,  5.2%  and  8.5% respectively, on year-on-year basis. Among the pulses, the all-India retail price of masur dal has declined 5% on year-on-year  basis  while  the  price  of  gram  dal  is  stable  with  1.6%  increase  over  previous  year.  The  prices  of moong dal and urad dal recorded year-on-year increase of 8% which is roughly same as the rate of increase in the minimum support price. The all-India retail prices of all edible oils, except groundnut oil, have declined by 17.5% to 29% on year-on-year basis. The retail prices of groundnut remains stable with an year-on-year increase of 1.7%. The consumer food price inflation for June, 2023 is 4.49%.

(c) : In order to check the current increase in prices of tomato and make it available to the consumers at affordable  prices,  the  Government  has  started  the  procurement  of  tomatoes  under  Price  Stabilisation  Fund (PSF)  and  is  making  it  available  at  a  highly  subsidised  rate  to  consumers.  The  National  Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) are continuously procuring tomato from mandis in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra and making it available  at  affordable  prices  in  major  consuming  centres  in  Delhi-NCR,  Bihar,  Rajasthan,  etc.  after subsidizing the price to the consumers. The tomatoes have been disposed initially at retail price of Rs.90/kg which has been reduced to Rs.80/kg from 16.07.2023 and further reduced to Rs.70/kg from 20.07.2023.

To check the volatility in prices of onion, the Government maintains onion buffer under the PSF. The buffer size has been increased year after year from 1.00 LMT in 2020-21 to 2.50 LMT in 2022-23. The onions from  the  buffer  are  released  in  major  consumption  centres  during  the  lean  season  from  September  to December in a calibrated and targeted manner to cool down prices. The onion buffer target for 2023-24 has been enhanced further to 3.00 LMT.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has launched in 2022,  a  grand  challenge for development of technologies for primary processing, storage and valorization of onions with the overall objective of ensuring availability  of  onion  to  consumers  at  affordable  prices.  The  606  ideas  submitted  by  various  categories  of participants had been evaluated by team of experts and 11 ideas have reached prototype development stage. Prototype  development  is  in  progress  on  ideas  pertaining  to  improved  storage,  pre-harvesting  treatment, primary  processing  and  valorisation  of  onion.  On  a  similar  line,  Tomato  Grand  Challenge  has  also  been launched  on  30.06.2023  to  invite  ideas  on  comprehensive  and  focused  area  interventions  in  tomato  value chain, from cropping and market insights for the farmers to improved packaging, transportation and storage. The Tomato Grand Challenge is open to students, research scholars, faculty members, industry individuals, Indian start-ups, professionals etc.

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. Import duty of 10% on tur has been removed to facilitate smooth and seamless imports.

To prevent hoarding, stock limits has been imposed on tur and urad under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 on 2 nd June, 2023 for a period till 31 st October, 2023. Stock of pulses held by entities such as dealers, importers, millers and traders are continuously monitored through the online stock monitoring portal of the Department of Consumer Affairs.

Disposal of 50,000 MT of tur from the Price Stabilisation Buffer has been undertaken in a targeted and calibrated manner to augment the availability of stocks for milling into tur dal for the consumers.Stocks of chana  and  moong  from  the  Price  Support  Scheme  (PSS)  and  PSF  buffer  are  continuously  released  in  the market to moderate prices. Chana is also supplied to the States at a discount of Rs.15/kg for welfare schemes. Further, the government introduced the mechanism to convert chana stock into chana dal for retail disposal under the brand name of 'Bharat Dal' at highly subsidized rate of Rs.60/kg for 1kg pack and Rs.55/kg for 30kg pack in order to make pulses available to consumers at affordable prices by converting chana stock of the  government  into  chana  dal.  Bharat  Dal  is  being  distributed  through  retail  outlets  of  NAFED,  NCCF, KendriyaBhandar  and  Safal.  The  chana  dal,  under  this  arrangement,  is  also  made  available  to  state governments for supplies under their welfare schemes, police, jails, and also for distribution through the retail outlets of state government controlled cooperatives and corporations.

In  order  to  manage  the  overall  food  security  of  the  country  and  control  the  increasing  prices  of foodgrains, the export policy of wheat has been prohibited w.e.f. 13th May, 2022 and from 12th July, 2022 the export of atta (wheat) has been subjected to the recommendation of Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Export of Wheat.

To prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation, the Government of India has imposed stock limits on the Wheat from 12th June 2023 for a period till 31st March, 2024. Stock of wheat held by entities such as traders/wholesalers, retailers and processors are continuously monitored through the online stock monitoring portal of the Department of Food and Public Distribution.

The Government is also continuously offloading the wheat from central pool under Open Market Sale Scheme  (Domestic)  (OMSS  (D))  2023  to  flour  mills/private  traders/bulk  buyers/manufacturers  of  wheat products through e-auction to control retail prices of wheat.

Further, the export of broken rice has been banned w.e.f. 9th September, 2022 and the export of nonbasmati White Rice prohibited w.e.f. 20th July 2023 to check the increase in prices. The government is also continuously disposing rice under the OMSS to augment availability in the market and control the prices.

In order to control and ease the prices of edible oils in the domestic market, the Government of India has taken the following steps:

-  The basic duty on Crude Palm Oil, Crude Soyabean Oil and Crude Sunflower Oil was reduced from 2.5% to Nil. The Agri-cess on Oils was brought down from 20% to 5%.
-  The basic duty on Refined Soybean oil and Refined Sunflower Oil was rationalised on 15.06.2023 by reducing it from 17.5% to 12.5% in line with the basic duty on Refined Palm Oils which was reduced from 17.5% to 12.5% on 21.12.2021.
-  The import of Refined Palm Oils under free category has extended untill further orders.
-  Regular meetings are conducted with leading Edible Oil Associations and industry wherein they are being advised to pass on the benefits of decrease in the international prices of major edible oils to the domestic end consumers.

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