Do you know how much a vegetarian thali costs in India?

According to a report by domestic credit rating agency, Crisil, the cost of a vegetarian thali in India was Rs 27.3 in March 2024. The report further said, that, due to rise in food item prices, the cost of such a thali increased by Rs 2 in last one year. Crisil takes into account prices of food items like roti, rice, dal, veggies, curd and salad to compute the price of a vegetable thali. The prices of vegetables in which the rating agency saw accretion are onion, tomato and potatoes over the last one year.

“The cost of the veg thali increased due to a surge of 40 per cent, 36 per cent and 22 per cent on-year in prices of onion, tomato and potato, respectively, due to lower arrivals of onion and potato and low base of last fiscal for tomatoes,” the report said.

The report also noted that due to lower arrivals, prices of rice increased 14 per cent and pulses by 22 per cent when compared to the year-ago period.

On the other hand, according to the agency, price of a non-vegetarian thali has decreased in last one year by around Rs 4 to Rs 54.9 in March 2024 from Rs 59.2 in year ago period. While computing the price of a non-vegetarian thali, Crisil considers prices of same food items that it considers in computation of   the vegetarian one only adjustment being daal gets replaced with chicken.

Crisil attributed non-vegetarian thali price correction to a 16 per cent  fall in broiler chicken prices during the same period.

India has battled elevated food inflation for a long.  Albeit, due to several steps taken in the past by the government and the RBI,  food price growth rate could come under control to some extent in the recent past. The RBI governor had also said on several occasions that despite recent food price corrections, global food price shock still bears malice.  As per latest government data, the food inflation in the country was 7.76 per cent in February 2024.

The above findings are from Crisil’s “Roti Rice Rate” report.