Inflation control: Govt asks states to act on hoarders

With prices of essential food items shooting up, the Centre on Tuesday unveiled measures to tame inflation by asking state governments to crack down on hoarders and delist items such as onions and potato on which a minimum export price was slapped to discourage exports.

The steps were disclosed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley after a high-level meeting in which agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and top officials including Nripendra Misra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, were present.

Jaitley said Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung has been asked to procure onions and potatoes from the open market and flood the market through Mother Dairy retail outlets.

He has also been asked to delist all food items in the capital, a move that will enable farmers to sell their produce directly to the market.

The government, he said, was closely monitoring prices of 22 commodities and will take steps to curb volatility.

Rising prices of essential food items such as vegetables, fruits and cereals pushed up inflation to a five-month high of 6.01 per cent in May.

The likelihood of a sub-normal monsoon and the fallout of violence in Iraq on commodity and oil markets may further worsen the price situation.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said the central bank will be focused on controlling inflation over the next few months.