New Delhi, April 10: The government on Friday said the retail sugar prices, which had skyrocketed to nearly Rs 50 per kg in mid-January, have fallen in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi during the week-ended April 7.
Sugar prices have declined at Delhi, Shimla, Mumbai, Jaipur, Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram, an official release said. The prices remained steady at all other reporting centres except Bhubaneswar, it said.
The Department of Consumer Affairs maintains the data of retail as well as wholesale prices for 14 essential food items such as rice, wheat, sugar, cooking oils, salt, potato and onion for 17 major centres in the country.
The prices of the sweetener have started falling since February following several fiscal and administrative steps taken by the government to check prices and higher domestic production in the current season than estimated earlier.
Sugar output is likely to cross 18 million tonnes in 2009-10 season, ending September, higher than the earlier estimate of 16 million tonnes. The country had produced 14.7 million tonnes in the last season.
In the National Capital, the retail prices of rice, wheat, atta, sugar, vanaspati, onion and salt have remained steady during the week. Groundnut oil prices fell by Rs 3.
“Retail prices of most variety of pulses registered marginal increase,” the statement said.
The government also said that wheat prices have decreased at Delhi, Lucknow and Bangalore and remained steady at all other reporting centres except for an increase at Bhopal.
Potato prices have declined at Raipur and Bangalore and remained steady at most of the reporting centres. Onion rates have decreased at Shimla, Lucknow, Jaipur, Bangalore and Thiruvananthpuram and remained steady at most of other places.
Prices of edible oils have declined at some places and remained steady at most of the reporting centres.
–PTI