03/11/2008 (Express Buzz) - The price of cooking oil, which was beyond the reach of common man till yesterday, has crashed suddenly much to the relief of house-makers and hotel industry.

The price of palm oil which was Rs 70 till a month ago has come down to Rs 35, thanks to the crash in crude oil prices in international markets.

Though everyone is elated, one section of the people are sore over the falling prices. The dealers of public distribution system, who are incurring a loss of Rs 10 on every kilogram of palm oil sold in their outlets. When the prices were at the highest, Government had supplied palm oil to the dealers to be sold at Rs 45 a kilogram.

However, while a kilogram of palm oil is available at Rs 35 in the open market now, dealers were forced to sell it to their white ration card holders at Rs 45. As a result, people are refraining from buying oil from dealers.

About 2,000 PDS dealers in the district supply 742.74 metric tonnes of  palm oil to 7.41 lakh white ration card holders.

While only 60 per cent of the dealers drew demand drafts to lift the stock in November, the remaining refused to buy the stock.

As many as 110 dealers who failed to lift the stock in September were suspended by the Joint Collector. Along with them, 10 civil supply deputy tahsildars and seven food inspectors were also axed for failing to convince the dealers to lift the oil stock.

When the suspension issue took serious proportions the suspensions were lifted. “As the card-holders were reluctant to purchase palm oil from the dealers, we incurred thousands of rupees loss,” said Desuraju, a PDS dealer from Kothapatnam.

Some of the Joint Collectors, during a video-conference with civil supplies commissioner on Saturday, urged the Government to adjust the prices of palm oil in tune with the international market.

As the prices of palm oil were in the reach of common man, the Government would study the issue of market intervention. A decision could only be taken after the study report is submitted to the Government, the civil supplies commissioner clarified.

While the Government has forced dealers to lift the palm oil stocks, the dealers, in turn, are forcing the card-holders to buy palm oil at Rs 45 if they want rice and kerosene.

However, the stocks of palm oil are still piling up with the dealers as there were no takers either in urban areas or rural areas.