NEW DELHI: Amid the debate over inflation and price rise, the latest data from the Consumer Affairs Department revealed that prices of kitchen commodities including wheat, rice, sugar, edible oil and essential vegetables such as potato recorded substantial jumps in the month of July as compared to the last year, in Delhi.
The data showed that price of wheat or atta increased by Rs 5 from Rs 24 in the year July 2021 to Rs 29 in July 2022. Similarly, prices of sugar and mustard oil also witnessed a rise as it went up by Rs 3 (from Rs 38 to Rs 41) and by Rs 13 (from Rs 172 to Rs 185) respectively, during the corresponding period.
Similarly, prices of essential vegetables including potato also recorded an increase from Rs 18 to Rs 27. However, the data showed that prices of tomato and onion decreased by Rs 13 and Rs 6 respectively, in July this year, as compared to the last year.
Similarly, prices of groundnut oil, sunflower oil and palm oil also witnessed remarkable rises of Rs 21, Rs 18 and Rs 14 in July this year as compared with the same period last year.
On Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha that the Central government has reduced customs duty on crude palm oil from 35.75 per cent to first 8.25 per cent and now to 5.5 per cent only, thus drastically cutting duties so that the common people face lower edible oil prices.
Traders associations agreed that the price rise coupled with poor job situation has impacted the common households in the country.
"You can see the markets in Delhi and other cities. Purchasing capacity of common people has come down drastically. There has been lesser footfalls in all the markets and people have started cutting into their expenditure. Rise in different taxes, job loss after Covid and price rise have a detrimental effect on the pockets of the common man. Leave alone the people at the bottom, even the middle class have been impacted badly through this, " said Ramesh Parashar, national secretary of the traders association AIUTUC.
As per the government data, inflation has stayed over 7 per cent for three months.
In June, the consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation was recorded at 7.01 per cent. However, inflation has eased since the RBI started to hike the repo rate in May. On May 4, the RBI hiked the key interest rate by 40 basis points in a surprise announcement.