As shooting prices of essential items threaten to dampen festive mood, the Centre asked states to regulate stocks of sugar, pulses, paddy, rice and edible oilseeds that traders can keep till September-end 2010.
Earlier, the government had empowered states to slap the limit on the reserves of sugar till January 8, 2010, and that on pulses, paddy, rice and edible oilseeds till September-end, 2009, to effectively check hoarding and curb rise in prices.
The Cabinet has decided to extend the validity of Central notifications under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, in respect of sugar, pulses, paddy, edible oilseeds and rice till September 30, 2010, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said, briefing about the decisions at the meeting.
Sugar prices have doubled to Rs 37 a kg from a year earlier while rates of pulses, mainly tur, have gone up by 50 per cent in the last four months to Rs 90 a kg. Rice prices, too, went up at least by 25 per cent in the last four months.
The latest decisions seem to have been aimed at boosting domestic supplies and check prices in times of festivals amid growing apprehensions about the fate of summer-sown crops, mainly paddy, sugarcane and oilseeds, due to drought.
“The Central government has already delegated powers, thereby, empowering the state governments to fix stock holding limit etc as per local conditions and to undertake de-hoarding operations commensurate with the objective of the Central orders,” Soni said.