oppn parties Relief For Households As Cooking Oil Prices Decline Sharply

News Snippets

  • The Supreme Court directed the Election Commission to investigate alleged irregularities in bulk Form 7 applications during Uttar Pradesh's Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, take corrective steps and submit a compliance report. The Commission's counsel told the court that its officers had found the bulk applications false and had not acted on them
  • The INDIA bloc postponed its symbolic public impeachment proceedings against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar to October 31 because of rain and reiterated plans for its November 1 march to Ramlila Maidan
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused opposition leaders of spreading rumours and attempting to create chaos amid the West Asia crisis, while Home Minister Amit Shah challenged them to seek a special parliamentary session to discuss their allegations against the Election Commission. Shah said the BJP was ready for a debate on the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls
  • Amit Shah announced that the BJP would implement a Uniform Civil Code in Uttar Pradesh if it returned to power in next year's Assembly election. Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav questioned why the BJP had waited through two terms in government before making the promise
  • The political dispute over the proposed sale of a 60.72% stake in IDBI Bank to Fairfax intensified as Rahul Gandhi questioned the government's decision and raised concerns about employee protections and reservation policies. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman defended the transaction, saying the bank had been revived through recapitalisation and that due process had been followed
  • Congress has asked Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer, State Election Commission and Kolkata Municipal Corporation to provide an online voter-roll search facility and email-based filing of claims and objections for the civic polls. The CPM has separately sought the relocation of three municipal returning officers' offices to north Kolkata to make access easier for voters
  • The Madras High Court directed Tamil Nadu's Cyber Crime Division to monitor online platforms for content amounting to criminal intimidation of sitting judges and ordered police to act against threats and personal abuse. It declined to impose a blanket ban on peaceful discussion or criticism of judicial decisions, distinguishing criticism of judgments from intimidation of judges
  • Six people, including five passengers and the pilot, were killed when a helicopter travelling from Badrinath to Dehradun crashed in Uttarakhand's Joshimath valley after losing communication and tracking contact. Operator Trans Bharat Aviation grounded its entire fleet as a precaution while authorities conducted search and rescue operations
  • The Reserve Bank of India intensified cybersecurity scrutiny of banks after a rise in attacks, asking lenders to demonstrate compliance with existing rules, examine vulnerabilities in application programming interfaces and explain preparations for AI-related risks. The review follows a leak of data belonging to 3,900 SBI customers and more than 700 unauthorised transfers worth about $2 million from two non-bank lenders
  • India's foreign-exchange reserves fell by $1.27 billion to $719.75 billion in the week ended October 23, marking a seventh consecutive weekly decline and the lowest level in more than two months. RBI data also showed bank credit grew 17.94% year-on-year to ₹232.54 lakh crore by October 15, ahead of 16.6% growth in deposits
  • The Sensex rose 308.49 points, or 0.42%, to close at 74,459.53 on Friday, while the Nifty 50 gained 116.35 points, or 0.51%, to settle at 23,053.10, crossing the 23,000 mark. IT stocks led the rally, with the Nifty IT index gaining over 2%, while mid-cap and small-cap shares came under pressure, with their respective indices falling 0.93% and 1.85%. For October, the Sensex gained 2.7% and the Nifty 1.9%, ending a two-month losing streak
  • Manisha Bhanwala became the first Indian woman to win a senior wrestling world title, defeating American Abigail Nette 8-6 in the 59kg freestyle final after trailing 0-6. India finished the women's freestyle competition with four medals, its best-ever haul at the championships
  • India defeated Japan 4-1 in the men's Asian Champions Trophy in Jalandhar to register a third consecutive victory. Abhishek Nain scored twice, while captain Harmanpreet Singh and Vishnukant Singh added one goal each
  • New Zealand beat India by 87 runs in the fourth T20 International at Auckland, with Glenn Phillips scoring 107 off 49 balls as the hosts posted 259-7. India were restricted to 172-9 but retain a 3-1 lead in the five-match series
  • Supreme Court wonders how scammers know who keeps huge funds in their accounts, says bank staff is involved in digital arrest scams and asks RBI to mandate indemnification by banks of money lost by customers in digital arrest scams
Congress conducts 'public impeachment' of CEC Gyanesh Kumar in mock Parliament at party chief Mallikarjun Kharge's house /////// Rahul Gandhi says Kumar is not going to survive as CEC
oppn parties
Relief For Households As Cooking Oil Prices Decline Sharply

By Linus Garg
First publised on 2023-05-05 07:33:53

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Linus tackles things head-on. He takes sides in his analysis and it fits excellently with our editorial policy. No 'maybe's' and 'allegedly' for him, only things in black and white.

The price of edible oils has fallen drastically in the world market. The reduction is as much as $200-250 per tonne, meaning Rs 16.5 to Rs 20.5 per kg. The Centre has noted this and has asked domestic manufacturers to reduce their prices in line with the global decline and pass on the benefit to the consumers with immediate effect. At least one company, Mother Dairy, that markets the popular Dhara brand of edible oils, has reduced the MRP of its products by Rs 15-20 across variants. Others have also started reducing their prices.

The Union food secretary Sanjeev Chopra held a meeting with the Solvent Extraction Association of India (SEA) and the representatives of the Indian Vegetable Oil Producers' Association (IVPA) and impressed upon them that the benefit of the decline in global prices must be passed on to the consumers. The government wanted the companies to reduce the price to distributors as well as the MRP so that there was no dilution in passing on the benefit in this regard. This will also reduce food inflation further.

After the pandemic, the sharp rise in commodity prices, including edible oil prices, due to supply chain disruptions, had resulted in a sharp rise in MRP of the daily essential in India. Prices had jumped by more than 50% for some variants while the average rise for poplular variants was more than 25%. Households were feeling the pinch as the prices of other essentials like atta and maida had also skyrocketed. With the decline in global prices and the market trend, it is expected that prices will drop further. The government needs to keep a close watch to ensure the benefit is passed on to the consumers. The elevated price of edible oils had also forced restaurants to hike their prices. They should also reduce the same now.