While no official comment was available about the outcome of the cabinet committee on prices meeting, a source said that high milk prices, among other things, came up for discussion.
With food inflation crossing 17%, the government today reviewed the price situation at the highest level and considered various options to contain rising prices of essential items.
The Cabinet Committee on Prices (CCP), presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, met here to take stock of the food inflation which has hit the common man hard.
While no official comment was available about the outcome of the CCP meeting, a source said that high milk prices, among other things, came up for discussion.
Driven by high prices of vegetables, fruits, milk and eggs, food inflation increased for the second week in a row, to 17.05% for the week ended January 22.
Although vegetable prices are likely to moderate in the coming weeks, experts believe that rates of protein-based food items like milk, fish and egg are expected to remain firm.
Among vegetables, onion prices on annual basis rose by 130.41% in the third week of January, although they have moderated considerably in the recent days.
Vegetables as a whole became dearer by 77.05% on an annual basis followed by fruits (15.47%), egg, meat and fish (15.05%), milk (11.41%) and potato (6.22%).
As regards milk, the options available with the Centre include allowing more imports for skimmed milk powder (SMP) at zero duty by co-operatives like NDDB, parent body of Mother Dairy.
NDDB was last year allowed to duty-free import of 30,000 tonnes of milk powder. However, any import over and above this limit is subject to a basic custom duty of 60%, which might also be reduced.
Last month, the government had withdrawn duty benefits on exports of milk products like SMP and casein to augment domestic availability and curb prices.
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