Centre To Discuss Measures Taken By States To Curb Edible Oil Prices

Amid continuous rise in edible oil prices and with the festival season having commenced, the Food and Public Distribution Department will meet all the states on October 25 to review steps taken by them on implementing its stock limit order on the commodity.

Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey has written to all the states, informing them about various measures taken to arrest rising edible oil prices in order to give relief to people.

With the demand for the commodity rising due to the festival season, the government is regularly monitoring the prices as well as its availability to consumers, and had earlier issued a stock disclosure notification so that there is no hoarding across the country.

Monday's meeting with states is also a step towards ensuring that there is adequate supply of edible oils as the festival season progresses.

Apart from issuing a notification seeking stock disclosure from states, the Centre has also created a web portal to monitor the edible oils stock on a weekly basis in all the states.

As demand and consumption of edible oil differs in each state, the states have been given the option of considering the previous stock limit while providing the information on the portal.

Also the millers and stockholders have been asked not to hold stocks in excess of two months of the storage capacity.