Daily food basket costs more now despite attempts to curb inflation

MUMBAI: Despite measures to curtail food inflation by the government, prices of many items from our daily food basket like atta, certain dals, edible oils, potatoes and chillies continue to be very high.

According to the mid-year economic review tabled by the finance minister this week in Parliament, prices of essential commodities with a weightage of 17.6% went up 6.3% (year-on-year) on November 18, from 5.3% in the same period a year ago.

Prices of as many as 10 items of daily consumption have gone up by more than 10% during the period. These include wheat (20.8%), gram (44.5%), potatoes (24%), tea (26.1%), groundnut oil (13.5%), moong (39.1%), urad (48.4%), chillies (74.0%) and atta (22 %).

A look at the Ncdex polled spot price in Delhi, to get an idea of how prices have shot up, shows that wheat has gone up over 46% at Rs 1,152.3 per quintal from April 1-November 18.

After prices of essential commodities shot through the roof, state governments were given the power to effect stock limits to prevent hoarding of essential commodities like wheat and pulses in states like Maharashtra.

These efforts, however, did not bear fruit as there was a fundamental shortage in wheat after which India had to import the grain for the first time in six years.

In the case of pulses, retail price of urad jumped to Rs 75 per kg, following the news that the crop had been partially damaged due to heavy rainfall in areas such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Even after this year’s kharif season, there is no proper estimate on the quantity of urad produced in the country.

While prices of vanaspati, jowar, bajra, milk, mutton and safety-matches went up by 5% to 10%, that of rice, tur, mustard oil and coconut oil went up by around 5%. Only onions, sugar, salt, masur, fish, gur, coking coal recorded an absolute decline in prices.