Food and Consumer Affairs Minister launches PMS mobile app

The newly added 16 items included are bajra, jowar, ragi, suji (wheat), maida (wheat), besan, ghee, butter, brinjal, egg, black pepper, coriander, cummin seed, red chillies, turmeric powder and banana

Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India, has included 16 additional commodities under Price Monitoring, said Pralhad Venkatesh Joshi, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution & New and Renewable Energy, while launching the Version 4.0 Price Monitoring System (PMS) Mobile App. Already 22 commodities were being covered under monitoring of daily prices. Now, the cost of a total of 38 commodities will be monitored.

The Department has monitored the daily prices from 550 centres across 34 States/UTs. The price data monitored by the Department provides advance inputs for policy decisions for the Government, RBI and analysts regarding CPI inflation. The 38 commodities constitute close to 31 per cent of the total CPI weights against 26.5 per cent of CPI weights captured by the 22 commodities. The newly added 16 items included are Bajra, Jowar, Ragi, Suji (wheat), Maida (wheat), Besan, Ghee, Butter, Brinjal, Egg, Black Pepper, Coriander, Cummin seed, Red chillies, Turmeric powder and Banana.

The increase in coverage of food items under daily price monitoring will play a crucial role in policy interventions to stabilise price volatility in food items and to control overall inflation. This initiative further reflects the Government’s commitment to addressing the availability and affordability of essential commodities to consumers.

The government of India has recently taken a series of measures to contain food price inflation. These include providing Bharat Chana Dal at Rs.60 per kg; Bharat Atta at Rs.27.50 per kg and Bharat Rice at Rs.29 per kg to the retail consumers. NCCF has started retail sale of Tomatoes to retail consumers at Rs.60 per kg from 29th July, 2024. Stock limits are imposed on Tur and Desi Chana to prevent hoarding from 21st June 2024 till 30th September 2024. Importing pulses including Tur, Urad, Masur, Yellow Peas and desi Chana at zero duty has been allowed to augment domestic supply. A buffer stock of 5 LMT is being built to for release during the lean months to ensure availability and affordability.