The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) on Tuesday announced a price hike of ₹2 per litre effective from June 26, across the State. The announcement was made by KMF Chairman Bheema Naik at a press conference held in Bengaluru, also revealing that consumers will receive additional value of 50 ml in each purchase.
The KMF defended its decision stating that this was not an increase in price of milk, but a revision of price and quantity with each sachets carrying an additional 50 ml for the enhancements in price. Currently, regular Nandini milk is priced at ₹42 per litre.
According to the statement by KMF, the decision is made keeping in mind the welfare of consumers as well as milk producers. The increase is carried out to support dairy farmers amidst increasing cost of procuring raw materials. The statement also points out that the price increase is minimal as compared to neighboring State Kerala, sold by Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation under the brand name Milma, sells 1 litre of milk for the price of ₹52 and similarly in the case of Gujarat, Amul charges ₹56 per litre of milk.
Karnataka Chief Minister defended the price hike and said that the price hike is proportionate to the volume of milk in the packet.
Amit Malviya, convenor of the Bhartiya Janata Party’s IT cell, commenting on his X handle, criticised this decision and said that this follows the Karnataka government’s recent ₹3 increase in petrol prices per liter.
KMF had previously hiked the prices in November 2022 raising them by ₹3. Another revision followed in July 2023, with prices hiked by an additional ₹3. This price increase comes a week after an hike in fuel prices, when price of petrol was enhanced by ₹3 and diesel by ₹3.5 per litre, respectively. The State government had defended the hike in fuel prices and said it was done to generate more revenue to support developmental and public services.