A new initiative taken by the Government is the setting up of Price
Stablisation Fund (PSF) a Central Sector Scheme, being implemented by
the Department of Agriculture & Co-operation (DAC) with a corpus of
Rs.500 crore. The scheme is expected to help in regulating price
volatility of agricultural and horticultural commodities both when there
is price rise or vice-versa. Initially the support is for procurement
of onion and potato only.
The Government closely monitors the wholesale/retail prices of 22 select
essential commodities based on information received from 68 reporting
centres across the country.
There is a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) on
Prices set up by the Cabinet Secretariat to review the prices of
essential items, and to suggest possible policy interventions for
implementation.