Amid skyrocketing edible oils prices, the Centre has asked States to take disclosures of stock of edible oilseeds and oils with the millers and stockists and review weekly monitoring of prices to check hoardings and to ensure transparency in the availability of edible oils and oilseeds.
A high level meeting of the ministry of food is expected on Friday. Officials said that despite reduction in the import duty, a sudden surge in the prices have been observed, which may be due to hoardings by the stockist.
In a letter to chief secretaries, Principal Secretaries and Commissioners Food and Civil Supplies of states and union territories, Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs’ economic advisor Manisha Sen Sarma has asked states government to direct stockholders-millers, traders, refiners and wholesalers to declare stocks of edible oils and oilseeds and the same should be verified by the states to keep prices under control. “This is not a stock limitation order of any kind,” officials added.
As per the data shared by the ministry of consumer affairs a few days back, the average monthly retail prices of groundnut oil increased by 19.24 % in July over the same month last year.