Standing Committee Report on ConsumerAffairs, Food and Public Distribution (2024-25) Released

Department of Consumer Affairs monitoring price of 38 food commodities to control the volatility in prices

Retail sale of Chana, Moong and Masur Bharat Dal brand done ensuring availability of essential food items to consumers at affordable prices

Intervention done through Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme to provide subsidised Onion and Tomato to consumers

Special steps taken in North-Eastern states to boost production of pulses and horticultural crops; Initiative towards achieving self-sufficiency in pulses production by 2027

Number of convergence partners of National Consumer Helpline increases from 263 companies in 2017 to 1009 companies in 2024

Number of calls in National Consumer Helpline increases tenfold; average number of complaints registered per month has surges to 1,12,468 in 2024

Standing Committehttps://www.cabkgoyal.com/standing-committee-report-on-consumeraffairs-food-and-public-distribution-2024-25-released/e Report on Consumer Affairs

Price Monitoring

Price Monitoring Division oversees the implementation of daily price monitoring of essential food commodities and price stabilization interventions. The Department collects daily retail and wholesale prices of 22 essential commodities and retail prices of 16 additional commodities from 555 price reporting centers through mobile app viz. Price Monitoring System (PMS). These daily prices constitute critical inputs to take decisions purport to mitigate price surge, market intervention, restricting import-export duties and calibrate the monetary policy. Under Price Stabilization Fund, government undertakes market interventions to control the volatility in prices of agri-horticultural commodities such as onion, potato, tomato and pulses to protect the interests of consumers. Market interventions primarily involve procurement of these commodities for buffer stock and undertaking strategic market disposals to contain price volatility. Buffer stocking also acts as deterrent for unscrupulous speculations. The procurement of agri-horticultural commodities ensures remunerative prices to the farmers for their produce.

The Price Monitoring Division (PMD) was set up in 1998. Presently, 38 commodities are being monitored by PMD include five item groups i.e., Cereals: Fats: (Groundnut Oil, Mustard Oil, Vanaspati Oil, Soya Oil, Sunflower Oil, Palm Oil, Desi Ghee, Butter), Vegetables: (Potato, Onion, Tomato, Brinjal), Animal Products: (Milk, Egg), Spices: (Black Pepper, Coriander, Cumin Seed, Red Chilli, Turmeric), Fruits: (Banana), Others: (Sugar, Gur, Tea, Salt). In October 2024, Ladakh was added to the price monitoring network with the inclusion of two new centers, Leh and Kargil. This strategic expansion has brought the total coverage to 35 States/UTs.

Price Stabilisation Fund

The Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) was set up with an initial corpus of ₹500 crore to tackle price volatility in some agri-horticultural commodities viz. onion, potato and pulses to protect the interests of consumers. These commodities are to be procured from farmers/farmer’s association at the time of harvesting and stored for regulated release during lean season to help bring down their prices. The PSF Scheme has now been merged with other components of PM-AASHA scheme of D/o Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. Therefore, PSF is now one of the components of PM-AASHA umbrella scheme. However, the PSF Scheme will continue to be managed by D/o Consumer Affairs for price stabilisation interventions and daily price monitoring.

Budget Provision and Deliberations

Budget allocation/AE of ₹ 37,489.15 crore has been made under PSF corpus from 2014-15 to 2024-25. This fund was largely utilized for building the dynamic buffer of pulses and onions. The financial year-wise allocation/ utilization of funds under PSF is ₹ 10,000 crore in 2024-25 (BE), Nil in 2023-24 (AE), ₹ 0.01 crore in 2022-23 (AE) , ₹ 2030.83 crore in 2021-22 (AE), ₹11,135.30cr in 2020-21 (AE), ₹1,713 cr in 2019-20 (AE), ₹1500 cr in 2018-19 (AE), ₹ 3500 cr in 2017-18 (AE); ₹ 6900 cr in 2016-17 (AE); ₹ 660 crores in 2015-16 (AE); and ₹ 50 crores in 2014-15 (AE). As per the Government’s decision, the PSF was transferred to the Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) w.e.f. 1st April, 2016. Price stabilization operations are determined at the Centre by the Central Price Stabilization Fund Management Committee (PSFMC) which was reconstituted on transfer of Scheme and is now headed by Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs. The Corpus Fund is managed by Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC). There is also a Sub- committee for investing surplus from PSF corpus chaired by Financial Adviser, M/o CA, F&PD. Till now, 59 meetings of the Re-constituted PSMFC have been held. In the States/UTs, the Price Stabilization operations are to be managed by the State level PSFMC and operated out of the State level Corpus Fund. Interest free advances from the PSF corpus may be made both to Central Agencies and to State level Corpus. The State level Corpus is created with a sharing pattern between GoI and State in the ratio of 50: 50, which is 75:25 in case the North Eastern States. On 9th December 2015, Government approved creation of buffer stock of 1.5 lakh tonnes of pulses. Subsequently, after due deliberation, it was recommended that a larger buffer stock of around 20 lakh tonnes of pulses would be needed for effective market intervention. This was approved by the Government on 12.09.2016. Government created a buffer of 20.50 lakh MT of pulses through both domestic procurement and imports by RMS 2017-18 from which regular disposal was undertaken.

Conversion of Chana, Moong and Masur stocks for retail disposal under Bharat   Dal brand

Chana Dal: During Phase II, the Central Government launched the sale of Chana dal and Chana whole in retail market under the brand name of Bharat Dal on 23.10.2024. The allocated Chana stock will be sold in Dal form and Whole form in the ratio of 80:20 in 1 kg pack at MRP of Rs. 70/kg for Chana Dal and Rs.58/kg for Chana Whole. Bharat Chana Dal and Whole Chana are made available for retail sale to consumers and for supplies through retail outlets of NAFED, NCCF, Kendriya Bhandar etc. Previously, during Phase I, chana dal was sold in retail market under the brand name of Bharat Dal at subsidized rates of Rs.60 per kg for 1 kg pack and Rs.55 per kg for 30 kg pack in order to make pulses available to consumers at affordable prices.

Moong Dal: Conversion of Moong stock into Moong Dal (Dhuli) and Moong Dal (Saboot) for retail disposal under the Bharat Dal Brand has also been approved the Government. Taking into account the prevailing prices of Moong Dal in the retail market, the MRP for Bharat Moong Dal (Dhuli) is fixed at Rs.107 per kg, and Bharat Moong Dal (Sabut) at Rs.93 per kg by allowing a discount of Rs.1,500/qtl on the issue price (i.e., MSP of the stock) of Moong stock. Bharat Moong Dal is made available in retail outlets of NAFED, NCCF, Kendriya Bhandar, Safal etc. and also on e-commerce platforms.

Masur Dal: Conversion of Masur stock into Masur Dal for retail disposal under the Bharat Dal Brand has also been approved the Government. Taking into account the prevailing prices of Masur Dal in the retail market, the MRP for Bharat Masur Dal is fixed at Rs.89 per kg. Bharat Masur Dal is made available in retail outlets of NAFED, NCCF, Kendriya Bhandar Safal etc. and also on e-commerce platforms.

Major milestones in PSF Pulses Buffer

A buffer stock of 20.50 lakh tonnes of pulses was built through both domestic procurement of 16.71 lakh tonnes by FCI, NAFED and SFAC, and imports of 3.79 lakh tonnes by MMTC and STC during Phase 1 (2016-18). Domestic procurement for the buffer was done from farmers and farmers association during Kharif Marketing Seasons (KMS) of 2015-16 and 2016-17 as well as Rabi Marketing Seasons (RMS) of 2016-17 and 2017-18. Imports were made only during 2015-16 and 2016-17. This stock has been disposed off

Subsequently 2018-19 and onwards, Government has decided that procurement at MSP would be under PSS of DACFW and requirement towards building suitable buffer would be met from the PSS stock in case procurement is not required to be undertaken under PSF. As the procurement since Rabi-17 was under MSP operation of PSS, pulses procured under Price Support Scheme (PSS) of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DACFW) have since been channelized to PSF to the extent of meeting buffer requirements. This has ensured effective utilisation of PSS stocks towards stabilization efforts as calibrated releases are made from PSF. Thus, harmonization between PSS and PSF has been achieved with remunerative prices being assured to farmers and intervention on the supply side is undertaken to manage their prices in consumer interest.

During Phase 2, around 67.93 LMT of pulses have been transferred/replenished from PSS stocks to rebuild PSF buffer stock/allocation under PMGKAY/ANB schemes. Further, under PSF, procurement of 4.88 LMT of pulses have been undertaken and about 7.09 LMT has been procured from imported pulses. Also, 6.07 LMT of pulses have been replenished from PSS. In Phase 2, about 75.86 LMT (including PMGKAY/ANB) of pulses have been disposed of and 10.11 LMT of pulses are available in the PSF buffer (as on 02.12.2024). During F.Y. 2024-25, 4.41 LMT of pulses transferred from PSS, DA&FW to PSF, DoCA, 0.23 LMT of pulses procured under PSF, 0.25 LMT of pulses procured from imported pulses, 0.55 LMT of pulses have been replenished from PSS and 5.64 LMT of pulses has been   disposed of as on 02.12.2024

State-level Price Stabilisation Fund

The Price Stabilisation Fund Scheme has a component under which interest- free working capital advance is provided from the PSF Corpus on a 50:50 sharing basis between Centre and State (75:25 ratio in respect of North Eastern States) for setting up State-level PSF. Till date, 7 States have availed of the fund for setting up State-level PSF for market intervention in various essential food commodities. Funds have been provided to Andhra Pradesh (₹50 crores), Telangana (₹9.15 crores), West Bengal (₹2.50 crores), Odisha (₹25 crores), Tamil Nadu (₹2.50 crores), Assam (₹75 crores) and Nagaland (₹37.50 crores) for setting up State Level PSF.

PSF Onion Operations

In order to check the volatility in prices of onion, the Government maintains onion buffer under the PSF. The buffer size has been increased year after year from 1.00 LMT in 2020-21 to 2.50 LMT in 2022-23 to 7 LMT in 2023-24 and 4.75 LMT in 2024-25. The onion from the buffer is released in major consumption centres during the lean season from September to December in a calibrated and targeted manner to cool down prices. The details of onion buffer acquired under PSF since 2017-18 are given below:

Year wise quantity of onion acquired under PSF since 2017-18

Year

Qty Procured

2017-18

5,136.74

2018-19

13,507.77

2019-20

76,814.40

2020-21

1,01,811.10

2021-22

2,08,033.33

2022-23

2,51,056.78

2023-24

6,38,785.54

2024-25

4,75,236.00

 

The Onion retail sale started on 05.9.2024. Upto 04 December, 2024 (04.12.2022), total 23 States were covered under onion retails sale and sale quantity of 5,14,92,875.32 kg. The main agencies involved in retail sale of onion were NAFED, NCCF, Kendriya Bhandar &Safal etc.

PSF Tomato Operation and Tomato Grand Challenge

The Department has directed National Cooperative Consumers Federation (NCCF) to procure tomato and dispose them simultaneously in major cities where retail prices have recorded the maximum increase.

The Department of Consumer Affairs launched the Tomato Grand Challenge on 30th June, 2023, to invite ideas for comprehensive and focused area interventions in tomato value chain, from cropping and market insights for the farmers to improved packaging, transportation and storage. The Tomato Grand Challenge is open to students, research scholars, faculty members, industry individuals, Indian start-ups, professionals etc. The overall objective of the Grand Challenge is to ensure availability of tomato to consumers at affordable prices. A total of 1376 ideas have been received. After two rounds of evaluations of proposals and presentations made by the participants, 28 teams from various institutes and startups were shortlisted and these projects were funded for development of the solutions with a major focus on commercialization of the products. Top 3/4 winners will be selected for field implementation for ensuring its usability/scalability on a large scale and price of the product.

Initiatives in North East States

Price Monitoring Division (PMD) monitors retail and wholesale prices of 38 essential food items for which data is also obtained 87 centres (included in 555 total centers) from North East, viz. Itanagar, Namsai, Pasighat, Tawang, Guwahati, Barpeta, Tinsukia, Dhubri, Goalpara, Golaghat, Mangaldai, Mushalpur, Udalguri, Bajali, Hojai, Jorhat, Bongaigaon, Morigaon, Sonari, Tamulpur, Sivasagar, Biswanath Chariali, Dibrugarh, Karimganj, Majuli, Sonitpur Tezpur, Haflong, As-Lakhimpur, Diphu, Nalbari, South Salmara, Mankachar, Kamrup, Imphal, Chandel, Jiribam, Kangpokpi, Senapati, Tamenglong, Thoubal, Ukhrul, Shillong, Tura, Jowai, Sohra, Mairang, Nongpoh, Khliehriat, Williamnagar, Nongstoin, Mawkyrwat, Aizawl, Lunglei, Kolasib, Mamit, Champhai, Serchhip, Siaha, Lawngtlai, Hnahthial, Khawzawl, Saitual, Kohima, Dimapur, Tuensang, Mokochung, Chumukedima, Mon, Peren, Phek, Tseminyu, Wokha, Zunheboto, Kiphire, Longleng, Niuland, Shamator, Noklak, Gangtok, Gyalshing, Namchi, Soreng, Mangan, Pakyong, Agartala, Dharmanagar, Belonia, TR-Udaipur. To strengthen the price monitoring mechanism in the North Eastern States, PMD through its Scheme for Strengthening of PMC provided financial assistance to State Government of Mizoram, Nagaland, Assam and Tripura during the year 2024-25.

On 8th Nov, 2024, The Department of Consumer Affairs, Government of India organizes day long Round Table consultation on ‘Food Price Management and Expanding Pulses & Horticultural Crop Production in North Eastern Region held at Guwahati. The objective of the meeting was to focus on boosting the production of pulses and horticultural crops, recognizing the critical role of North-Eastern states in achieving self-sufficiency in pulses production by 2027.

Interest free advances from the PSF corpus may be made both to Central Agencies and to State level Corpus. The State level Corpus is created with a sharing pattern between GOI and State in the ratio of 50: 50, which is 75:25 in case the North Eastern States.

₹75 crore was released as 1st instalment of Centre’s share as a matching contribution to Govt. of Assam in December 2019 for creation of a revolving fund of ₹200 crore for State Level Price Stabilisation Fund of Assam. The State Government has conveyed that the fund will be utilised for market intervention activities in case of onions and Masur Dal.

₹37.50 crore was released as 1st instalment of Centre’s share as a matching contribution to Govt. of Nagaland in April 2023 for creation of a revolving fund of ₹100 crore for State Level Price Stabilisation Fund of Nagaland. The State Government has conveyed that the fund will be utilised for market intervention activities in case of Gram, Masur and Potato.

Rules/Regulations/Guidelines notified

The following Rules/Regulations/Guidelines have been notified under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 during 2024:

  1. Central Consumer Protection Authority (Recruitment, Salary, Allowances and other Terms and Conditions of Service of Officers and Other Employees of Central Authority) Rules, 2024
  2. Consumer Protection (Salary, allowances and conditions of service of President and Members of the State Commission and District Commission) (Amendment) Model Rules, 2024
  3. National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (Group A posts) Recruitment (Amendment) Rules, 2024

e-Filing

Under the provisions of Consumer Protection Act, 2019, a Consumer Commission online application portal named “edaakhil.nic.in” has been developed to facilitate the consumers/advocates to file the consumer complaint online through the e-Daakhil portal from home or anywhere at their own comfort. This E-daakhil portal also provides facility to pay the complaint fees online as well as having option to pay the fees offline with uploading the proof of payment of fee. Appeals can now also be filed on E-Dakhil.  With recent launch of edaakhil in Ladakh UT, the e-Daakhil portal can now be accessed across the country in NCDRC and in all States/UTs.

Mediation

Under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, each Consumer Commission (District, State and National) shall have a Mediation Cell. Consumer cases, where an element of settlement exists among concerned parties, may be referred to these Mediation Cells with consent of the parties for adjudication. It therefore, acts as an alternate dispute redressal mechanism. At present, there are approx. 570 Mediation Cells in the Country.

Disposal of Cases

As a result of various initiatives undertaken by the Department of Consumer Affairs such as various regional workshops, state specific meetings and various sector-specific conferences, from July 2022 onwards, there is a significant positive shift towards the speedy and efficient disposal of cases with a disposal rate of more than 100% in many States and District Commissions. In this context, the Department has been pro-actively taking steps to ensure that the objective of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 i.e the speedy, effective and timely disposal of cases, may be achieved effectively.

Roll out of E-Jagriti

For the facilitation of consumers and with a mandate to bring justice at their doorsteps, Video Conferencing facilities have been installed in 10 benches of NCDRC and 35 benches of SCDRCs. This new service will help Consumer Commissions to hear cases through hybrid hearing which will help in remote appearances of petitioners, lawyers and organizations and also support faster disposal and hearing of a large number of cases.