Davos: India's Planning Commission Deputy
Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said the government
would "aggressively" sell cereals in the open market to rein
in surging food prices.
"The Cabinet took a series of decisions that will
actually increase the supply, to use the stock more
aggresively.... The idea is to do more open market sales. And
that will happen in February or March," he told private TV
news channel NDTV here.
Ahluwalia is here to attend the 40th annual meeting of
the World Economic Forum.
Regretting that states picked up only 10 per cent of the
wheat that was allocated to them, Ahluwalia said "now we are
going to put out more and also going to be in form of direct
sales which will definitely impact the supply and position of
cereals".
The government had decided to increase the quantum of
foodgrain a ration card holder can buy in a month by 10 kg in
a month.
Driven by higher prices of vegetables, pulses and
cereals, the food inflation soared to a decade's high of about
20 per cent in December. Even the general inflation to over 7
per cent in early January and is expected to cross 9 per cent
by March-end.
Reserve Bank of India too in its macro economic review
released earlier in the day expressed concern about rising
inflation and hinted at taking steps to contain price rise.
The RBI is slated to announce its third quarterly review
of the monetary policy tomorrow.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 29, 2010, 00:25