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| Govt panel to take stock of sugar, pulse prices on Aug 12 |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Aug 07, 2009, 16:14 IST |
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The government is likely to take stock of soaring prices of food items on August 12, as commodities like sugar and pulses continue to become costlier despite the negative inflation for the past eight weeks.
A Committee of Secretaries (CoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar is expected to discuss the steps required to calm prices, a senior official said.
The meeting assumes significance as top officials of food, agriculture, commerce and finance will meet after Parliament discussed the issue of price rise this week.
With festivals including Dussehra and Diwali not far off, traders are apprehensive that sugar, currently at around Rs 28-30 a kg, may become costlier.
Sugar production in the country is estimated to be 150-155 lakh tonnes in the 2008-09 season (October-September) against the annual demand of about 225 lakh tonnes. The government has allowed import of 10 lakh tonnes of refined sugar to rein in prices.
Similarly, prices of pulses including arhar have shot up significantly in the past few weeks. India, the world's largest producer and consumer of pulses, depends on imports to meet domestic demand as there is about three million tonne gap.
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