“The meeting will discuss the situation, review the implementation of the Essential Commodities Act, and call upon states to lift more food stocks from the central government’s public distribution system (PDS),” Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said.
Pawar also implored states to play an active role in containing food inflation by procuring stock more effectively. “In the last two months, the allocation of wheat to states through PDS stood at 20 lakh tonne but only 1.59 lakh was lifted. Of the 10 lakh tonne of rice allocated, only 2.09 lakh was lifted by the states,” he pointed out.
State governments had also been asked to undertake anti-hoarding measures to control prices, the agriculture minister said, adding the centre would increase open market operations to sell excess wheat and rice through various agencies.
Pawar also outlined a number of measures to control prices of sugar, which are near their lifetime highs globally, as a result of shortage due to drought in India and floods in Brazil, the two major sugar producing countries.
“The Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP) has approved extending the deadline for refined sugar imports to December 31,” Pawar said, adding that among other measures, the government was mulling removal of VAT on imported sugar, and that the Home Ministry would crack down on smuggling of sugarcane and sugar in the country.
The CCP has also asked the government of UP, one of the largest sugar producing states, to allow movement of imported raw sugar into the state to the tune of 9 lakh tonne, Pawar said.
“I am confident that these measures will cool sugar prices and that prices would start coming down in eight to 10 days,” he said.
Pawar also refuted talk that he was under fire from Cabinet colleagues for, as an agriculture minister, failing to control food prices.
Source: CNBC-TV18
Courtesy moneycontrol.com
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