The hike in cooking oil prices is creating immense problems for the consumers who are already coping up with a quivering economic situation that has risen due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The dearth of edible oils in the international market has given rise to such an edgy situation in India that has even set records for the staggering 52% price hikes.
Kashmir annually imports around seven hundred crores worth edible oil from different states in which a considerable percentage comes from the Jammu division alone. This shows that edible oils are exceedingly consumed in Kashmiri kitchens on a routine basis.
However, the incessant hikes in the oil prices is agonizing the people who are forced to buy the mustard oil at rupees 195 per kilogram. The prices have kept on increasing from last March as the Covid lockdowns were implemented on a global scale.
The repercussions of such jacked up edible oil prices is not only affecting the daily household consumption but even restaurants and street eateries have been badly affected by this trend. Some even have shut their doors on customers waiting for prices to go normal.
As always everything boils down to the actions needed to be taken by the government. This is because the consumer remains always at the bottom of this pyramid, who alone bears the brunt of this economic trembling. The immediate act on part of the government is to lower the import duties that can balance this abnormal rise to a great extent and relieve the end buyers of its heavy burden.
