NEW DELHI: The country’s apex pulses and grains traders’ organisation, IGPA, has suggested the government fix the maximum retail price for pulses to prevent spike in prices and to allow more import of the key kitchen item to tide over any shortage.
It has also suggested that the government increase the import duty to ensure that the cost of imported pulses arriving in India is more than the minimum support price offered by the government to protect the interest of farmers.
Vice chairman of India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), Bimal Kothari said the industry estimates suggest that the overall availability of domestic pulses will be less than the demand and so there is no other option but to import the item. “We have proposed a hike in duty so that farmers are protected and consumers also get pulses,” he said.
Flagging the recent advisory of central government to states directing pulses stockholders such as millers, importers and traders to declare their stock and also to verify the same, Kothari said, “These instructions have only served to create apprehension amongst trade stakeholders who are now hesitant to buy domestically produced pulses as well as import pulses. This is defeating the very purpose of the government’s move to remove the restrictions on the imports of tur, urad and moong.”
He said traders are worried that legitimately procured stock also might come under scanner and in ambit of EC Act land the trader on the wrong side of law for no fault of theirs.
“Hence, the consumer affairs ministry needs to issue a clarification stating that their intentions are to just monitor stocks held by the trade for policy purposes which will help assuage the apprehensions of the trade,” IPGA said.
Kothari said their estimates based on ground reports suggest that the domestic production of pulses including chana will be less than the government estimates and India will need to import around 26 lakh tonnes of pulses.
Kothari said, “As per the 3rd advance estimates data sourced from the website of agriculture ministry, for the Crop Year 2020-21, tur production is expected to be lower by almost 7 lakh tonnes and urad is expected to be lower by 5.2 lakh tonnes and the overall kharif production is expected to be lower by 212 lakh tonnes. Given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, IPGA is expecting further shortages of pulses in the forthcoming crop year and believes that as the apex body for the trade, it is IPGA’s responsibility to bring this to the government’s notice well in advance.”
Source:timesofindia.indiatimes.com