After stock limits, India to import 12 lakh tonnes of tur dal to keep prices in check

Source: The post is based on the article “After stock limits, India to import 12 lakh tonnes of tur dal to keep prices in check” published in The Hindu on 1st July 2023

What is the News?

India will be importing 12 lakh tonnes of the Tur Dal in the current fiscal, up by 35% from the last year, to boost domestic availability and contain price rise.

Why have Tur Dal prices increased?

Low Domestic Production: Tur Dal (pigeon peas) has low domestic production in 2022-23. It has remained at 30 lakh tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) against 39 lakh tonnes last year.

Hoarding by traders and alleged cartelisation in imports also contribute to price rise.

Note: Hoarding is the purchase and warehousing of large quantities of a commodity with the intent of benefiting from future price increases.

– A cartel is an organization created between a group of producers of a good or service to control supply or to regulate or manipulate prices.

What are the measures the government of India is taking to control Tur Dal prices?

Central government has imposed stock limits on tur dal till October 31 to bring down the prices.

It has also decided to offload 50,000 tonnes from the buffer stock in the market.

The Department of Consumer Affairs has announced the formation of a committee to monitor the stock of Tur held by various entities such as importers, millers, stockists, traders, and others.

To facilitate smooth and seamless imports, the government has removed the 10% duty applicable for Tur imports from non-Least developed countries(LDC) countries.