Pulses and grains importers want the Finance Minister Aurn Jaitley to exempt them from stockholding limits.
Representatives of the importers association met Jaitley and his officials on Friday and offered to supply 100 tonnes of tur dal each day at ₹135/kg but urged the government to exempt them from the stockholding limits imposed last week. Average stockholding for importers across States is around 350 tonnes – a fraction of bulk supply undertaken.
Jaitley had called the meeting to assess prices of pulses, particularly of tur, which had crossed the ₹200/kg mark earlier this week.
The spurt in rates prompted the Centre to push States into conducting de-hoarding operations and about 50,657 tonnes of pulses have been recovered from traders and stockists, said an official statement.
“The prices of pulses will decline only with availability of imported dals. This is why importers, who have already contracted 2.5 million tonnes (mt) for delivery till January, need to be exempted from the stockholding limits,” said Pravin Dongre, Chairman, Indian Pulses and Grains Association.
De hoarding operations
In addition to the 2.5 mt, another 250,000 tonnes is believed to be lying at Indian ports.
The Food Ministry informed that de-hoarding operations were continuing with the largest haul being recovered from Maharashtra (30,373 tonnes), followed by Karnataka (5,967.3 tonnes) and Chhattisgarh (4,525.2 tonnes).
Significant hauls were also realised in Telangana (2,546 tonnes), Madhya Pradesh (2,295 tonnes), Rajasthan (2,151.5 tonnes) and Haryana (1,932.1 tonnes).
“As a result of action taken by States there has been a decrease of about ₹200 a quintal in the mandi rates in Mumbai and also in chana futures. Decrease in retail prices has also been seen in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” the statement said.
Rabi sowing
The Agriculture Ministry released its first sowing report for the Rabi season. As on Friday, wheat and coarse cereals had been sown over 28.20 lakh hectares (lh), about 63 per cent more than at the same time last year when the season’s crops had covered 17.36 lh.
Pulses like chana have been sown over 9.83 lh – compared to 4.75 lh earlier, while coarse cereals have been covered on 16.57 lh ( 11.19 lh).
Wheat, the main Rabi foodgrain, has been transplanted over 0.20 lh.