Food prices may come down after rabi harvest,says Pranab

SHILLONG - Terming food inflation as “disturbing”, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said it may come down after the rabi (winter) crop is harvested.

“Food inflation is disturbing. However, a good rabi harvest would have a moderating influence on food inflation,” he told reporters here.

The minister, however, reiterated that there would be no rollback on petrol and diesel prices.

“There has been inflationary pressure on energy import since there is a rise in global oil prices,” he said.

Mukherjee attributed rising prices of essential commodities like edible oil, sugar and pulses to supply bottlenecks in the global market.

“That’s why despite taking steps of allowing duty-free import and putting the import under OGL (open general list), adequate supply is not available, but government has taken steps,” he said.

Mukherjee added that sugar prices would also ease after a “good” sugarcane production in the country this year.

The finance minister said the government was aware of the disturbing trend of food price rise and has brought down inflation from 14 to 10 per cent this year through a host of measures.