Relief to the people of Delhi-NCR and Mumbai, the government will sell tomatoes at Rs 50 per kg from Friday

Govt to sell tomatoes at Rs 50 per kg The government will start selling tomatoes in the retail markets of Delhi-NCR and Mumbai from Friday at a discounted rate of Rs 50 per kg to provide relief to the common man. Tomato is currently being sold in the market at Rs 60 per kg.

Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi launched the sale of tomatoes at a subsidized rate of Rs 60 per kg in Delhi-NCR on July 29. Later its sale started in Mumbai also. Joshi said after our intervention, the prices of tomatoes have come down. According to Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare: "We will start selling tomatoes at Rs 50 per kg in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai from tomorrow August 2". The National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India Ltd is selling tomatoes through mobile vans.

According to data from the Department of Consumer Affairs, the all-India average price of tomatoes was Rs 61.74 per kg on July 31. The average price in Delhi on Wednesday was Rs 70 per kg. Last month, rates rose to over Rs 100 per kg as supply was affected due to heat waves followed by erratic rains in several producing states.

Khare said the ministry will consider involving Mother Dairy in selling tomatoes through its Safal stores in the Delhi-NCR market. The ministry has not used the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) in this case, as tomatoes were procured directly from the mandis.

The federation is procuring tomatoes from wholesale mandis and selling them at reasonable retail prices. The move is aimed at ensuring that profit margins at the retail level remain reasonable and prevent middlemen from making windfall profits and thus protect the interests of consumers. Through this intervention, NCCF wants to cool down price rise and maintain price stability in the market, thereby benefiting consumers.