By IANS,
New Delhi : The government Friday said steps taken to control prices of food articles have started yielding results and prices of “many food commodities have either declined or remained steady over the last one week”.
The consumer affairs, food and public distribution ministry said Friday that the government had allowed duty-free import of sugar to meet the shortfall and about two lakh tonnes raw sugar has already been imported.
“For April, 20.02 lakh tonnes sugar has been released, which is adequate to meet the internal demand of sugar for the month,” the ministry statement said.
It said that data collected by the department of consumer affairs in the week ending March 25 stated that sugar prices had declined in Delhi, Patna, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram and remained steady at all other reporting centres.
The statement said that production of wheat and pulses was expected to be high as wheat has been grown on 278.16 lakh hectare and pulses on 144.79 lakh hectare.
“The rabi crop is at harvesting stage and reports are that the standing crops are in good state of health,” it said.
Referring to the current procurement season, the statement said that 5.30 lakh tonnes wheat has been procured by the government agencies so far, which was much more than 2.04 lakh tonnes procured in the corresponding period last year.
Rice procurement has gone up to 255.11 lakh tonnes, it said.
“The prospects of bumper rabi production and good procurement have impacted the prices of food grain. Wheat prices have remained steady at most places in the country. This trend is also noticeable in prices of pulses, potato and onion at most places across the country. Edible oils have also either declined or remained steady,” the statement said.
The ministry’s latest statement on fall in prices of some essential commodities has come a day after reports that annual food inflation rose marginally to 16.35 percent for the week ended March 20 from 16.22 percent a week before, owing to a rise in the prices of milk, fuel and lentils.
According to data on the wholesale price index released Thursday by the commerce and industry ministry, the index for food articles rose 0.6 percent for the week ended March 20 while that for non-food articles fell 0.1 percent.