With the price of food items hitting the roof, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today said his department has no “concrete power” to check food inflation.
While Paswan did not elaborate further, top sources said the Consumer Affairs Department has sought more powers to help it rein in the prices as it is the one which is held responsible for rise in prices of any food item including in recent cases of spike in rates of pulses.
Besides pulses, prices of onion, tomato and peas have risen sharply in recent months, hurting the household budgets of the people.
“Consumer Affairs Department does not have any concrete power to check food inflation,” Paswan told reporters here.
The Department monitors the prices of 22 essential food items and it can ask states to impose stockholding limits and issue directions to carry out dehoarding operations.
The Agriculture Ministry is responsible for production and manages price stabilisation fund, while the gap between supply and demand is looked into by the Commerce Ministry, while the tax related issues are dealt with by the Finance Ministry.