The prices of tomatoes which used to be heavy on the commoner’s pocket in the kitchen will now come down. The Central Government on Monday directed the National Cooperative Consumer Federation (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation (Nafed) to reduce the prices of tomatoes from August 15.
Per the government’s instructions, tomatoes will now be available at Rs 70 per kg less. That means Rs 50 per kg will be the new rate. The Consumer Affairs Department has taken this decision, given the fall in the prices of tomatoes in the wholesale markets.
NCCF and NAFED sell tomatoes in Delhi-NCR, Jaipur and Kota in Rajasthan, Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh and Patna, Muzaffarpur, Arrah and Buxar in Bihar. Retail sales of tomatoes in Delhi-NCR began on July 14 as the government took this step to bring down rising prices. NCCF runs mobile tomato shops at 70 locations across Delhi and 15 in Noida and Greater Noida.
The retail price of tomatoes procured by NCCF and Nafed was initially fixed at Rs 90 per kg and later reduced to Rs 80 per kg. From July 20, it was reduced to Rs 70 per kg. In addition, the agency is also undertaking retail sales of tomatoes through the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) platform. Now the government has instructed that from August 15, tomatoes will be sold at Rs 50 per kg.
Following the Department of Consumer Affairs directive, NCCF and NAFED have started procuring tomatoes from markets in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra for retailing in consumption centres, which has seen a huge price jump. Until August 13, NCCF and Nafed agencies procured 15 lakh kg of tomatoes.
