New Delhi: Amul and Mother Dairy raised milk prices across all variants on Monday.
Increases in prices by these two leading milk suppliers come just after the completion of the voting process for the Lok Sabha elections.
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets dairy products under the Amul brand, increased milk prices by about Rs 2 per litre across the country.
The increase of Rs 2 per litre translates to a 3-4% increase in MRP, which is much lower than average food inflation, GCMMF said in a statement.
The federation said that since February 2023, it has not made any increase in the price of fresh pouch milk in major markets.
"This price hike is being done due to an increase in the overall cost of operation and production of milk. Our member unions have also increased farmer's prices approximately by 6–8% over the last one year," the federation said.
"The price revision shall help in sustaining remunerative milk prices for our milk producers and encourage them to produce more milk," the statement said.
Mother Dairy also announced Rs 2 per litre hike in milk prices in the Delhi-NCR market due to a rise in input costs over the past 15 months.
The increase in prices of all variants of milk is effective from Monday (June 3) in Delhi-NCR as well as other markets where it has a presence.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has hiked the toll charges by an average of 5% and the revised toll charges for motorists on national highways across the country will come into effect on Monday, an official said.
The hike is part of NHAI's annual exercise, where the state-owned body calculates new rates factoring in several parameters, the senior NHAI official said.
The CPIM condemned the hike in milk prices and highway toll, saying the government was waiting until elections to impose "further burden" on the people.
In a statement, the CPM Politburo said the hike in highway toll will lead to an increase in the price of all commodities.
"The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemns the hikes in the prices of all variants of milk by Rs 2 per litre by Mother Dairy and Amul. It is clear that the government was waiting until the elections were over to impose further burden on people," they said.