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Pay more for milk
Staff Reporter | New Delhi
For the fourth time in a year, the state-owned Mother Dairy on Thursday hiked the prices of all its milk variants. While the full cream milk and bulk vended milk (token milk) have become costlier by Rs 2 per litre, the prices of the remaining variants — toned milk, double toned milk and skimmed milk — have been increased by Re 1 per litre.
The revised prices would be effective in Delhi and NCR from Saturday. It may be noted that since February 2006, the National Capital Region has witnessed nine rounds of upward price revisions from Rs 15 to Rs 23 a litre for toned milk and from Rs 19 to Rs 30 a litre for full cream milk.
As per the revised rates, full cream milk will now be available at Rs 30 instead of Rs 28 a litre whereas the bulk vended milk (token milk) will cost Rs 22 per litre. The token milk at present costs Rs 20 per litre. The toned milk will now be available at Rs 23 per litre after its rate has been increased by Re 1. The two other variants — double toned milk and skimmed milk — have also become costlier by Re 1 and would now cost Rs 20 and Rs 18 per litre respectively. The latest revision in milk prices has come as a shock to the consumers who have already been facing the brunt of back-breaking price rise. “The rising prices of essential commodities, including milk, have severely affected the family budget. The latest rise in milk prices was unexpected,” said Sarita Mathur, a housewife.
Earlier, Mother Dairy had in October last year increased the prices of its full cream and toned variants by Rs 2 and Re 1 a litre saying the drought had hit the supply of milk. However, prices of bulk vended milk, double toned milk and skimmed milk were left untouched. While the price of full cream milk was fixed at Rs 28 per litre, the rate of toned milk was hiked to Rs 22 per litre.
Notably, the dairy majors — Mother Dairy and Amul — had already increased the prices of some of its variants by Re 1 in August last year. Mother Dairy had increased the prices of its three variants, whereas Amul had revised the price of double toned milk only. The rate of double toned milk of Mother Dairy was fixed at Rs 19 per litre and those of toned and bulk vended milk (token milk) at Rs 20. The rate of skimmed milk of Mother Dairy was hiked to Rs 17 a litre. Similarly in September 2008, Mother Dairy had increased the prices of full cream and toned milk by Re 1. The prices of other variants had, however, remained unchanged.
According to Mother Dairy, the prices of milk were increased owing to high cost of milk procurement. A spokesperson of Mother Dairy said, “There has been increase in milk procurement prices which is significantly more than the increase in consumer prices. Increase in prices of cattle feed, oil cake and deoiled cake have impacted the milk production cost.” The spokesperson, however, claimed that the prices of milk in Delhi remain the lowest across the country for most of the variants.
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