New Delhi: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday blamed withholding of food stocks by traders in anticipation of weak monsoon as one of the reason behind the increase in inflation. The minister said that the BJP led NDA government is committed to ease supply side bottlenecks and asked states to take firm measures against hoarders to check speculation.
“The government is seized of the matter and is committed to ease supply side constraints. The rise in prices of food articles can also be attributed to withholding of stocks on account of apprehension of a weak monsoon,” said the minister.
He said that the state governments should take effective steps to ensure that hoarding is discouraged.
“The government is committed to take measures which will positively impact the GDP and result in higher growth than expected. I am hopeful that the inflation, which is moving towards the north now, would eventually come down,”said the finance minister Mr Jaitley.
