Rising food prices tear into government claims

NEW DELHI: The UPA government’s claims about “efficient management” of food essentials for the aam aadmi exploded on Thursday with the official food price index showing a sharp northward movement to 14.55% for the week ended November 7 compared with 10.07% last week.

The figures, which have formally established that foodflation is beyond politically permissible limits, also showed up the sharp divergence between government policies and crucial concerns of the common man, who spends about 45 per cent of his income on food compared to only 15 per cent spent by Americans.

Thursday’s inflation figures were primarily up on the price of pulses, but the aam aadmi’s platter has been getting costlier over the last several months.

Since end-July, prices of rice, wheat, vegetable (including the common man’s staples of potato and onion), milk and eggs have shot up to phenomenal highs.

According to the government’s own (and rather conservative) statistics released on Thursday, the price of potato has gone up by 102.47 per cent, onions by 38.24 per cent, pulses by 27.03 per cent.

The price of urad rose by nine per cent, mutton and moong by four per cent each, while condiments & spices, barley, wheat and bajra turned dearer by three per cent each compared to the previous week.

This winter of discontent could see, more importantly, the country’s second most important staple — rice — being added formally to the country’s list of key food imports.

Ironically, the option before the government is to import high priced rice even while it steadfastly keeps its procurement price to farmers in states such as Punjab and Haryana much lower.

Wheat, the most important staple, was already added to this list by the UPA in its first stint, when it imported it at phenomenally high prices in 2006 and 2007.

Food prices have been consistently high even when inflation was at a record low. The only respite was during the September-October quarter in 2008 when the government released foodgrains to bring down prices. This year, however, the same measure failed to yield similar results.

The government is now claiming that food prices will relax over the next three months, but that appears to be yet another red herring.

Agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan has asked the government not to relax export laws till October next year, that is till the next Kharif crop is ready.