SME Times News Bureau | 03 Apr, 2010
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said that prices of foodgrains are expected to come down after the rabi harvest, blaming the inflation on the supply bottleneck.
"The inflation is due to non-availability of certain commodities. The supply bottleneck is one of the reasons," Mukherjee told a news agency last night in Shillong.
"We are taking steps. After the rabi harvest, the prices of food items should come down," he was quoted.
Mukherjee said that the country needed 18 million tonnes of pulses while production was only 14 million tonnes. The same is the case with sugar; there is a shortfall of about 90 lakh tonnes, he added.