COLOMBO: Sri Lanka is expected to raise the controlled price of milk powder by 80 rupees kilogram or 35 rupees for a 400 gram pack as world market prices rise and the effects of a currency collapse in 2015 and 2016 begins to bite.
Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror newspaper said a government committee on cost of living had approved an 80 rupees per kilogram hike in milk powder following a rise in ‘world market’ prices.
The prices have to be published by gazette by the Consumer Affairs Authority which can prosecute retailers who sell above their set price.
The CAA has said that a 400 gram pack of milk powder will go up 35 rupees. However its formal decision-making body had to meet this week and then issue the gazette notification.
Due to price controls, milk prices do not change slowly over time but by sudden jumps. The current administration also pushed up the farmgate price for raw milk in 2015.
