PNS|New Delhi
In a first, the Centre will start selling tomatoes at discounted rates in retail markets in the national capital and few other cities from Friday to provide relief to the consumers as the price of the kitchen staple is ruling high at over Rs 200 per kilogram in some parts of the country.
Announcing the decision, the Consumer Affairs Ministry on Wednesday said the sale of tomatoes will be undertaken by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF).
Tomatoes will be sold at discounted rates in Delhi-NCR (National Capital Region), Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. It will be available in cities, including Patna, Varanasi, Kanpur and Kolkata, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told PTI.
“Tomatoes will be sold at a considerably lesser rate than the prevailing price in that area. It will be at least 30 per cent lower than the prevailing market rate on that given day. The idea is to give relief to consumers,” he said.
Both NAFED and NCCF will procure the perishable commodity from key producing centres of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and sell it in major consumption centres, where retail prices have recorded maximum increase in the last one month, the ministry said in a statement.
Singh said, “it will be for the first time, we are going to procure and sell tomatoes in retail markets. We have done that for onion. It is going to be a challenging task as tomato is a highly perishable commodity.”
In Delhi-NCR, NCCF will sell tomatoes through its own outlets, mobile vans, Mother Dairy’s Safal and Kendriya Bhandar outlets.
In other cities, both NAFED and NCCF will sell the kitchen staple at discounted rates through their own outlets or will have local tie up for the same, Singh said. According to him, the sale of tomatoes at discounted rates will continue till prices cool down, which is likely in the beginning of August.
