With retail prices of several essential commodities in Tamil Nadu exceeding national averages, the state government has sought the Centre’s approval to impose stockholding limits on rice, pulses, edible oils, and onions to curb hoarding and black marketing.

Stockholding limits restrict the quantity of a commodity that traders and other market participants can keep in stock. The Centre generally imposes such limits under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955.

The state government has sought the Centre’s concurrence to introduce limits on the specified commodities, for which no such limits are currently in force, according to the information cited in its proposal.

In a letter to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, the state government said the restrictions were necessary to ensure essential commodities remain available to the public at reasonable prices.

The Tamil Nadu government is learnt to have cited “global factors” and “crop failure due to El Niño”, arguing…