Bengaluru: As Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) prepares to deliberate on interest rates and inflation from Oct 5 to 7, rising prices have emerged as a growing concern for ordinary households. Raichur MP and former bureaucrat Kumar Naik has urged Union govt to confront mounting price pressures instead of resorting to appeasement politics. Warning that the widening gap between wholesale and retail inflation could signal deeper economic stress, he cautioned that rising input costs would eventually trickle down to consumers, further squeezing household budgets.From soaring vegetable prices to increasingly expensive everyday essentials, the squeeze on household budgets is becoming harder to ignore. With onions selling at around Rs 70 a kg and egg prices nearly 40% higher than a year ago, Naik pointed out that families were paying the price of rising input costs even as govt continued to claim that inflation remained within manageable limits.Naik also drew attention to the sharp escalation in wholesale inflation, which surged from around 2 per cent in Jan to nearly 10 per cent in June, warning that the mounting cost of goods was putting small businesses in a difficult position. Unable to pass on the entire increase to already struggling customers, these businesses were facing shrinking margins and the risk of job losses. “Instead of admitting that rising prices are a serious problem, govt is busy quoting numbers and claiming that inflation is ‘within limits’. For the family buying food every day, those limits mean little,” he said.Rural Karnataka worst hitThe pressure, Naik argued, was particularly acute in rural Karnataka, where drought has compounded the financial distress of households already grappling with rising food prices. He also questioned the continued diversion of sugarcane and maize for ethanol production, arguing that food supplies should take precedence when consumers and poultry farmers are struggling with higher costs. He said the Centre’s export restrictions on food commodities reflected inadequate planning.While acknowledging govt’s efforts to contain petrol and diesel prices and release foodgrains from public stocks, Naik said piecemeal relief could not substitute for a comprehensive strategy to shield households from inflation. He called for faster distribution of essential commodities from govt stocks to drought-hit regions, stronger rural cold-storage infrastructure, measures to reduce food wastage, easier credit for small businesses and effective implementation of the rural employment guarantee scheme.
