Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will chair the meeting of The Cabinet Committee on prices on Wednesday. The meeting is to discuss the price rises in various products including essential commodities like sugar.

The meeting was first scheduled for Tuesday, but as some ministers including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee were busy with the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s India tour it was postponed to Wednesday

The meeting is also expected to review the fuel prices. In the meeting the cabinet ministers along with the Prime minister are exacted to take decisions on curbing food inflation by increasing the availability of sugar and other commodities.

The decisions on extending the deadline for refined sugar import to December and approving the sale of an additional 500,000 tonne of wheat and rice through the Open Market Sale Scheme is also expected.

An export curb could also be applied on milk, according to some sources. Government is also considering importing pulses from Myanmar.

The government plans to tell states to check hoarding and black marketing and reduce taxes and levies on farm products so as to control the over the head food inflation.

The food inflation was at a 10 year high of 20 per cent in the first week of December. The price of Sugar has almost doubled from the last year and is nearing Rs50 per kilo in the capital. Other commodities like pulses, potato, onion and vegetables are also rising as country was affected by drought and floods in different regions. The kharif farm production was severely affected by the drought.

The congress party chief has attached significance to the inflation and said the rising prices are of highest concern to the party. Earlier, a ban by UP government on processing of imported raw sugar was requested to be lifted by the union minister for Food.

Food ministry proposes to allow millers from the state to be able to process imported raw sugar in other states as about nine lakh tonnes of the raw sugar is stocked up at ports.