Centre asks States to ensure reduction in edible oil prices

New Delhi, Oct 24, 2021: The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) will hold a virtual meeting with all the states on Monday, October 25 to review the action taken on the stock limit order on edible prices.

In a letter written to all states by Secretary DFPD, Sudhanshu Pandey, the Department has outlined initiatives taken by the Centre to ease prices of Edible Oils for relief of consumer and keeping the festive season in mind.

The DFPD is monitoring the prices of edible oils and there availability to the consumers. This is especially important to the context of the upcoming festival season in which demand of edible oils will increase. Various steps have already been taken by the government like based on the interaction with all the states and edible oil industry associations, stock disclosure notification has been issued and DFPD has created a web portal to monitor the stock of edible oils/oilseeds on a weekly basis in the country.

Demand and consumption of edible is different for the different states as per the preference of the consumers. However, for finalizing the stock limit quantity of edible oils and oilseeds, the states may consider/explore the previous stock limit imposed for edible oils and oilseeds by the states. It may be considered that any stakeholder (refiners, miller, wholesaler etc.) should not hold the stocks in excess two months of the storage capacity.

For guidance states may prefer to indicative limits which may have been imposed by states earlier is enclosed for consideration. However, for other categories similar quantities as appropriate for the state may be fixed. For example: for refiners, stocks of maximum of 2 months of the average scale of last six months could be used. Similarly, quanitities may be fixed for extractors/millers may be fixed.