Government taking steps to check food prices: Pranab

BARALA - The government is trying to manage the “supply side” and “demand side” in a bid to contain rising food prices, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced Sunday.

“The government is taking necessary steps to contain the food price inflation. There are two ways to manage inflation - supply-side management and demand-side management.

“RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has already done the demand-side management by raising the CRR (cash reserve ratio). It will suck out Rs.40,000 crore money from the banking system. This will ease liquidity pressure on the system,” Mukherjee said here.

He was speaking at a programme organised by the State Bank of India at the opening of the group’s 20,000th ATM at Barala in Murshidabad district.

Mukherjee said steps were also being taken on the supply side.

“Steps are being taken for supply of essential commodities like sugar, edible oil and pulses. Open import has been allowed and some import is already happening in these commodities,” he said.

He added both public and private sectors can import essential goods. The public sector has already started it.