Lok Sabha Question No. 6038 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-04-01
Subject: Rising Food Prices and Consumer Protection Failures
Ministry: CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION
Asked by: Shri Maddila Gurumoorthy

## Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution

## Government of India Department of Consumer Affairs

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 6038

TO BE ANSWERED ON 01.04.2026

## RISING FOOD PRICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION FAILURES

## 6038.  SHRI MADDILA GURUMOORTHY:

## Will the Minister of CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has taken note of the sharp rise in prices of essential commodities including pulses, edible oils, vegetables and foodgrains, severely impacting middleclass and poor households across the country;
- (b) if  so,  the  reasons  for  continued  price  volatility  despite  buffer  stock  policies,  market  intervention schemes and anti-hoarding measures;
- (c) the details of inspections conducted, hoarding cases booked and penalties imposed during the last two years to control artificial price rise; and
- (d) whether  the  Government  proposes  stronger  price  monitoring,  transparent  stock  disclosure  norms, stricter  enforcement  against  profiteering  and  direct  market  intervention  to  ensure  affordability  and protect consumers from inflationary pressures?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE

## CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD AND PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION (SHRI B.L.VERMA)

(a) & (b) :  Department of Consumer Affairs monitors the daily prices of 40 essential food commodities submitted  by  the  578  price  monitoring  centres  across  the  country.  As  per  the  data,  prices  of  food commodities are largely stable and under control.

The  prices  of  food  commodities  tend  to  be  volatile  as  they  are  affected  by  several  factors  such  as seasonality in production, supply chain disruptions, rise in international prices etc. Prices of edible oils like  sunflower  oils  and  mustard  oil  recorded  increasing  trend  on  year-on-year  basis  while  prices  of pulses, foodgrains and vegetables are stable.

(c)  &  (d)  :    In  order  to  make  the  daily  price  monitoring  stronger,  Department  of  Consumer  Affairs developed the Price Monitoring System (PMS) Mobile App for reporting the daily price data by the price reporting centres. Data reported through PMS Mobile App are geo-tagged to ensure reporting from the market locations and has inbuilt feature to calculate and report the average price from three collection centres  thereby  avoiding  human  errors  in  calculation.  An  analytical  dashboard  has  been  developed  for analysis of prices data through graphical visualisation, heat map, comparison between commodities and geographies, price forecasting etc. The daily report of prices and indicative price trends are duly analysed for  taking  appropriate  decisions  such  as  release  of  stocks  from  the  buffer,  stock  disclosure  by stockholding entities, imposition of stock limits, changes in trade policy instruments like rationalisation of import duty, changes in import quota, restrictions on exports of the commodity etc.

In  order  to  monitor  the  stock  of  pulses,  the  Department  of  Consumer  Affairs  directed  traders, millers,  importers,  and  organised  retail  chains  to  disclose  their  stock  holding  of  pulses  on  the  stock disclosure  portal  i.e.  https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/psp/  on  weekly  basis.  A  total  of  26668  traders,  dealers, millers, importers, stockists and big chain retailers are registered across India, holding a total stock of 5170282.56 MT of pulses, namely Gram, Tur, Urad, Moong, Masoor and Dried Matar, as per the stock disclosure portal as on 22.03.2026. Further, the actions taken  by  State  Governments  and  UT Administrations  against  hoarders  and  black-marketers  are  being  continuously  monitored  through  the online ATR portal, i.e. https://fcainfoweb.nic.in/ecre. The actions taken under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 and the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980 during the years 2024 and 2025 are as below:

|   Year | No of raids conducted   | Number of persons arrested   | Value of Goods Confiscated (in Rs. Crore)   |
|--------|-------------------------|------------------------------|---------------------------------------------|
|   2024 | 1,23,406                | 21,040                       | 2,425.55                                    |
|   2025 | 1,02,378                | 17,402                       | 120.13                                      |

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