The top government officials are monitoring a weekly stock report amid concerns of availability and prices of certain key essential commodities to cool off prices and food inflation, sources told CNBC-TV18 on June 8.
“The detailed weekly report is being sent to the Prime Minister’s Office, indicating the current situation and analysis by top government offices involved in price monitoring, as a straight measure to help form policies to tackle inflation,” they said.
According to the sources, the government could soon increase imports of Channa and Tur dal as an immediate step to intervene at the right time to cool off prices. “The government is considering imports to help support sales of essential commodities at concessional and subsidised rates,” they said.
The sources said the offices of cabinet secretariat, Finance Ministry, Department of Food and Public Distribution, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, and Department of Consumer Affairs, among others are involved in the price monitoring process.
Read More: Simplify Your Financial Life with a Separate Savings Account
They explained that the weekly basis monitoring is done on parameters like prices and availability of pulses, essential commodities, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, edible oil etc. It is being conducted at wholesale and retail levels at as many as 570 price monitoring centres across the country to assess a pan India situation, sources added.
Sources said, following were the average prices of commodities as per the government’s latest price monitoring report as on June 7, 2024
| Commodity | Avg price on June 7, 2024 | Avg price on June 7, 2023 |
| Masoor Dal | Rs 99/kg | Rs 92/kg |
| Black Channa | Rs 86/kg | Rs74/kg |
| Tur Dal | Rs 159/kg | Rs124/kg |
| Urad Dal | Rs126/kg | Rs110 /kg |
| Green Moong | Rs 118/kg | Rs 109/kg |
Read More: CWC passes resolution to appoint Rahul Gandhi as Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
Given this, the government expects good Kharif sowing of Tur and Urad and for this purpose, it is in talks with the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka and farmer associations in these states for better availability of seeds to help good yields, sources said.
On the availability of onions, government sources said that there were “no serious concerns as yet” but given the dynamics of onions and the past experience, the government has already initiated talks with farmers associations on increasing buffer limits.
