The Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, has included 16 additional commodities under Price Monitoring from August 1, according to Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution. Joshi disclosed this while launching the Version 4.0 Price Monitoring System (PMS) Mobile App. Already 22 commodities are covered under monitoring of daily prices. Now, the price of a total of 38 commodities will be monitored.
The Department has been monitoring the daily prices from 550 centres across 34 States/UTs. The price data monitored by the Department provides advance inputs for policy decisions for the Government, RBI and analysts regarding CPI inflation. The 38 commodities constitute close to 31 per cent of the total CPI weights as against 26.5 per cent of CPI weights captured by the 22 commodities.
The newly added 16 items included are Bajra, Jowar, Ragi, Suji (wheat), Maida (wheat), Besan, Ghee, Butter, Brinjal, Egg, Black Pepper, Coriander, Cummin seed, Red chillies, Turmeric powder and banana, according to an official release.
The increase in coverage of food items under daily price monitoring will play a crucial role in policy interventions to stabilise price volatility in food items and to control overall inflation. This initiative further reflects the Government’s commitment to addressing the issues of availability and affordability of essential commodities to the consumers, Joshi said.
He said the Government of India has, in the recent past, taken a series of measures to contain food price inflation. These include providing Bharat Chana Dal at Rs.60 per kg; Bharat Atta at Rs.27.50 per kg and Bharat Rice at Rs.29 per kg to the retail consumers.
NCCF has started retail sale of Tomatoes to retail consumers at Rs.60 per kg from 29th July 2024. To prevent hoarding, stock limits are imposed on Tur and Desi Chana from 21st June 2024 till 30th September 2024. Import of pulses including Tur, Urad, Masur, Yellow Peas and desi Chana at zero duty has been allowed to augment domestic supply.
A buffer stock of 5 LMT is being built for release during the lean months to ensure availability and affordability. Price control measures taken by the Central Government together with robust progress in sown areas under Kharif pulses this year (2024-25) have stabilised the market and the prices of Chana, Tur and Urad in major mandis have declined by up to 4 per cent in past one month.
The declining trend in mandi prices is now reflected in retail prices in recent weeks as the all-India average retail prices of pulses have declined on a week-on-week basis.
