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Strict measures to reduce and control rice prices
View(s):District Secretaries have been directed to give priority to releasing paddy stocks to small and medium scale millers and keep watch on large scale millers who may manipulate markets, thus preventing a reduction of rice prices.
The directive was given this week at a meeting presided over by Agriculture Minister Chamal Rajapaksa with District Secretaries and Treasury officials. They discussed measures to keep the rice prices low.
“Instructions were given to ensure that large scale paddy millers do not manipulate rice prices and if such attempts are made measure would be taken to import rice,” Development Banks and Loan schemes State Minister, Shehan Semasinghe told the Sunday Times. The government hopes to release 40,000 Metric Tons of Paddy to the market.
The move came as the government was planning to issue another gazette notification on controlled rice prices. Plans were underway to issue a fresh gazette notification to have the maximum retail price of a kilo gram of Nadu at Rs 98.
This was after rice prices increased by about Rs 20 to Rs.30 in the past three weeks. Mr Semasinghe said that the rice milled by small and medium scale millers would be distributed through the co-operative shops and CWE.