Karnataka govt may put milk price hike on hold, at least for now

BENGALURU: In some relief for citizens already reeling under rising costs, the state government has backed down on hiking milk prices, at least for now. It was expected that milk prices will be hiked from October.

Recently, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had himself hinted at a hike in milk prices during a public meeting. He had even said the hike amount would go directly to dairy farmers. Following this, the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) had started making preparations to present a proposal for hiking milk prices.

The KMF was planning to seek a Rs 5 per like hike in milk prices and it was expected that the government could approve a Rs 1-2 hike. But the government now seems more concerned about the effect of the price hike and the opinion it would create among the consumers.

The government seems to have decided against a price hike and there may be no increase in milk prices at least this year. Already, milk prices were revised twice this year. As per the existing prices, the regular Nandini milk (blue packet) costs Rs 44 per litre, the orange packet Rs 48 per litre, Shubham Rs 50 and Samruddhi Rs 53 per litre.