Government took steps to control inflation during Rakhi, Dussehra-Diwali, will keep an eye on the prices of ghee-maida, gram flour

The central government has made a big decision to monitor the prices of essential food items during the festive season. The government has decided to monitor the prices of 16 more food items daily. Till now, the prices of only 22 essential items were being monitored.

Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister launched version 4.0 of the Price Monitoring System (PMS) mobile app. Under this, the government will also keep an eye on 16 items like brinjal, millet, ragi, egg, semolina, gram flour, refined flour, ghee, black pepper, coriander, cumin, red chili, turmeric, and banana. For this, the government has set up 550 centers in 34 states of the country. Prices will be monitored from here. Till now the government used to monitor rice, wheat, flour, gram dal, tur dal, peanut oil, mustard oil, vegetable, sugar, tea, salt, potato, onion, milk, lentil, moong dal, urad dal, jaggery, soya oil, sunflower oil, palm oil, tomato.

Launching the 4.0 version of the Price Monitoring System Mobile App, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Prahlad Joshi said, the Consumer Affairs Department of the Government has included 16 additional items under price monitoring from August 1, 2024. There are already 22 items included under daily price monitoring. Now prices of a total of 38 items will be monitored.

The Department is monitoring prices daily from 550 centres across 34 States/UTs. The price data monitored by the Department provides advance inputs to the Government, RBI, and analysts for policy decisions on CPI inflation. The 38 items account for about 31 percent of the total CPI weight, while the 22 items have a CPI weight of 26.5 percent. The 16 newly added items include bajra, jowar, ragi, semolina (wheat), maida (wheat), gram flour, ghee, butter, brinjal, egg, black pepper, coriander, cumin, red chili, turmeric powder, and banana.

Daily Price Monitoring The increase in coverage of food items under price monitoring will play an important role in policy measures to stabilize price volatility in food items and control overall inflation. This initiative reflects the Government's commitment to address the issues of availability and affordability of essential commodities for consumers.