Crack down on hoarders: Jaitley

• Asks States for strong measures to curb price rise
  
• Rising food prices major concern for Modi govt
  
• Food inflation jumps to 9.5 per cent

New Delhi: Blaming hoarding of food articles for rising prices, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday asked States to take effective steps against "speculative hoarding". "The state governments should take effective steps to ensure that speculative hoarding is discouraged," Jaitley said in a post on Facebook.

"The government is committed to taking measures which will positively impact the GDP and result in higher growth than expected," he said. Having romped home on the promise of bringing down food prices, the Modi government stares at rising food prices.

Concerned over rising onion rates, the union government on Tuesday imposed a minimum export price (MEP) of $300 per tonne on the kitchen staple to curb overseas sales and check retail prices. Onion prices have risen to about Rs 25-30 per kg in the national capital from Rs 15-20 per kg a fortnight ago.

India's Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rose to a five-month high of 6.01% in May against 5.2% in the previous month due to a sharp jump in food and fuel prices, said official data on Monday. The inflation stood at 4.58% in May 2013.

Jaitley said food, fuel and power costs had pushed up the inflation. "The rise in prices of food articles can also be attributed to withholding of stocks on account of apprehension of a weak monsoon," the minister said.

Food inflation jumped to 9.5%. Potato prices soared to 31.44%. Fruits became costlier by 19.40% year-on-year, while milk price rose by 9.57%. Poor monsoon and escalating tensions in Iraq were likely to put further pressure on Indian inflation. On the drop in the value of rupee, Jaitley said the Indian currency was under pressure due to tensions in Iraq.