Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Food and Civil Supplies G R Anil here on Thursday justified the government's decision to cut subsidy for essential items in Supplyco. He argued that the civil supplies department was forced to take such a stand for the survival of the Supplyco outlets which are on the verge of collapse. 

“ The government won't trouble the public for a long time by selling products through Supplyco without subsidy. We have decided to regularise the price of essential items every three months,” he declared. 

Talking to Manorama News, he clarified that the price hike in Supplyco will come into effect only with the issue of the next tender for purchasing products.

“ A decision on price hike will be taken only after consulting the government. A revised price list will be published soon,” he added.

The minister has come up with an explanation after the cabinet decided to hike the price of 13 subsidized products sold through Supplyco. With this, these listed products will be sold at only a 35 per cent subsidy through Supplyco outlets. Earlier, 70 per cent discount was given to these 13 products including rice, sugar and coconut oil. 

The 13 items that are distributed with a subsidy through the Supplyco stores are: Jaya rice, Kuruva rice, Matta rice, raw rice (pachari), sugar, coconut oil, red chilli, coriander, green gram, black gram (uzhunnu), chickpea, red cow peas (vanpayar), and toor dal (thuvarapparippu). In addition, a vast array of items, from tea and coffee to spices and coconut oil under the Sabari brand, are sold at lower rates than the retail market.