Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ramvilas Paswan and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the Food Ministers’ Conference in New Delhi on Friday.
pti Photo
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Six-month action plan
States will map areas prone to supply shortages for special monitoring and ensure that “stock-out”
situations do not occur
States will establish a price monitoring cell to monitor the prices of specific
essential commodities
States should establish a revolving fund for buying produce in bulk and regulate their storage and distribution to meet the peak demand at reasonable prices
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New Delhi, July 4
Faced with the challenge of rising inflation and an errant monsoon, the government today charted out a six-month action plan to ensure adequate supply of essential commodities at reasonable prices.
Among the measures announced by Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ramvilas Paswan after a day-long conference with his state counterparts, include making the Essential Commodities Act more stringent for an effective crackdown against hoarders and establishing a "Price Stabilisation Fund" for intervention in prices of vegetables and perishable items.
All offences under the Act would be made non-bailable. The government has already hiked the minimum export price of onion and potato to discourage exports and put stock holding limits on key vegetables for one year to bring them under the Act.
The fund will enable states to undertake market intervention in tackling price of commodities. In case prices of these commodities go up, there will be market intervention. The minister said the government was working on the basics of the proposal.
Other measure includes creating one storage space in all 635 districts of the nation to check the seasonal hike during monsoon months of July-September.
Besides, states were also asked to implement the Food Security Act as soon as possible. So far only 11 states have implemented the Act while 20 states and five union territories are yet to apply it. The government is also planning to increase its ambit, among other measures to reduce the impact of inflation.
On the day private forecasting agency Skymet raised the probability of El Nino affecting southwest monsoon to 60 per cent this year (80 per cent in northwest), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley assured that even if there was a shortfall in rains India, had no cause for worry.
"Monsoon has just started, it is a late start and it is too early to create any panic," he said.
Jaitley said India held sufficient stocks and the government was well prepared to deal with all eventualities. "Feedback from state ministers is that there is no need for panic. Unlike the previous government, we (BJP-led NDA) anticipated the situation well in advance. We will not allow it (inflation and price rise) to go out of control," he assured after a meeting with state food ministers on price control measures.
The Finance Minister said though there was no shortfall in production, the real challenge was from the supply-end, hoarders and black marketers. "When production of food items is higher than last year and still prices rise, then it means that intermediaries are keeping the stock somewhere. Hoarders are taking advantage of the forecast of below normal monsoon," he said
"It now depends upon us (Centre and state governments) who proves to be a winner. For example Delhi has taken the challenge that it will not let the price of onion go beyond Rs 40 a kg," he added.
Notably, at one point last year, onion ruled between Rs 80 and Rs 100 a kg.
Illegal hoarding and black marketing are the offences covered under the purview of the Essential Commodities Act and the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act. However, the statutory power for their implementation lies with the states.
The meeting was also attended by Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.
