Government closely monitoring prices of cereals, will take steps as and when needed: MoS Agri

The government is closely monitoring the prices of cereals and will take steps as and when they are needed to control the prices, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare said.

“We are restricting exports to maintain prices and ensuring that prices do not rise too much nor do they fall too much,” he added. Choudhary was speaking at an ITC unveiling ceremony celebrating the International Year of Millets.

The minister’s comments come at a time when India has been witnessing a sustained rise in the cost of its food basket in the past few months, with the prices of wheat, rice, milk, vegetables, and pulses firming up. Overall food inflation surged to 4.49 percent in June from 2.96 percent in May, pushing up the headline retail inflation for last month to 4.81 percent, from 4.31 percent in May.

The government, on July 20, prohibited the export of non-basmati white rice. The government has not yet lifted the ban on wheat exports in place since May last year, and for pulses, the customs duty of 10 percent on tur and urad continues to remain nil; this will remain unchanged till the end of FY2023-24. Rice has seen a 12.97 percent upswing on-year.