In an effort to check the rising tomato prices, the NCCF has started a market intervention by directly procuring the produce from the mandis and selling it at a subsidised rate. To effectively reach consumers, NCCF mobile vans are plying across 50 colonies in the national capital.
In an attempt to ease the burden on consumers and check the high margin for dealers, the central government on Monday started selling tomatoes at a controlled rate of Rs 65 per kg in Delhi. This is even as the price of tomatoes in the national capital has skyrocketed and was selling at the average rate of Rs 90 per kg in the market.
The city roads have some mobile vans from the National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd, to make tomatoes available at lower rates. Consumer Affairs Secretary Nidhi Khare flagged off the NCCF vans and flagged off the scheme. “We are trying to moderate the prices of tomatoes. With this market intervention, in the next 3-4 days prices of tomatoes will come down,” Khare told reporters, as per news agency PTI. NCCF intervenes to control tomato prices NCCF has initiated a market intervention by directly procuring tomatoes from mandis and selling them at a subsidised rate of Rs 65 per kg.
Mobile vans will sell tomatoes at 50 colonies in the national capital, a statement said. The intervention is to save consumers from the recent price rise of tomato and to avoid windfall gains for intermediaries. “The retail price of tomatoes has gone unjustifiably high over the past fortnight despite continuous arrival in mandis in good quantity. Quality issues are reportedly on account of rains and high humidity on account of protracted monsoon in the major producing states like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra,” the Department of Consumer Affairs said. Hence, it argues that the current price hike cannot be prevented from the intermediaries of the market during this peak festive season.
The NCCF is also continuously supplying onions from the government buffer at Rs 35 per kg to retail consumers in major cities across the country.
Khare also stated that the department is importing pulses from Myanmar and chickpeas from Australia. The average price of potato at Rs 40 per kg and onion at Rs 58 per kg have been recorded at the national level. According to government data, the all-India average price of potato is Rs 36.89 per kg, onion Rs 54.36 per kg, and tomato Rs 64.72 per kg on Monday.
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