“Section of traders manipulating market”
To prevent hoarding of the stocks, the government on Wednesday asked traders and importers to mandatarily disclose stocks of masur (lentils) so that supplies in the market are not disrupted.
Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary, department of consumers said that any “undisclosed stocks if found, will be considered as hoarding and suitable action under the essential commodities act will be initiated,”.
He said that when imports of lentils from Canada and tur (arhar) varieties of pulses from African countries have increased, few players are trying to ‘manipulate’ the market against consumers’ interest.
The government is closely monitoring the supply situations of various pulses for ensuring availability at reasonable prices in the forthcoming festival season, according to an official statement.
The decision to ask traders to declare lentil stocks came after farmers’ cooperative NAFED and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India (NCCF) had to suspend their tenders to purchase imported lentils due to exorbitantly high bids received from few suppliers which hints at ‘cartelization’.
In the 2022-23 crop year, because of largely stagnant production and rising demand of lentils, the country imported 0.86 million tonne (MT) of pulses, while the domestic production according to the agriculture ministry was estimated at 1.58 MT.
In December, 2022, the government had extended the import duty waiver for lentils by a year, until March 31 2024. Canada is the world’s biggest producer of lentils followed by Australia and Russia.
In June, in order to prevent hoarding and unscrupulous speculation and also to improve affordability to the consumers, the Government had imposed stock holding limits on in respect of tur dal and urad dal applicable to wholesalers, retailers, big chain retailers, millers and importer
The country has been largely import dependent for three varieties of pulses – lentils, tur (pigeon pea) and urad (black gram).
Out of a record pulses production of 27.5 MT in 2022-23 crop year (July-June), chana (gram) has a share of 50%. The country has been self-sufficient in chana and moong varieties of pulses.
Retail inflation in arhar rose by 34.05% in July while prices of masoor declined by 1.96% on year. Overall inflation in pulses and products category rose to 13.27% in July on year from 10.53% in June, 2023.
According to the department of consumer affairs, the modal retail prices of tur on Wednesday was Rs 150/kg, a rise of 7% in the last two months. Masoor modal prices were reported at Rs 100/kg on Tuesday, an increase of 10% from the prices prevailing two months back.
For augmenting domestic supplies, India signed an MoU with Mozambique for import of 0.2 MT of arhar annually for five years when the retail prices of tur skyrocketed to Rs 200 a kg in 2016. This MoU was extended for another five years in September 2021.
In 2021, India entered into MoUs with Malawi and Myanmar for the import of 50,000 tonne and 0.1 MT of tur per annum, respectively, till 2025.
Source:financialexpress.com