Centre says no plan to offer subsidy on export of pulses

A labourer carries a sack filled with pulses at a wholesale pulses market in Kolkata (File image: Reuters)

The Centre has no plans to subsidise the export of pulses, minister of consumer affairs, food, and public distribution Piyush Goyal has said.

"There is no proposal to offer export subsidies for pulse traders," Goyal said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha Day 3 of the monsoon session on July 20.

The comments come amid reports that exporters want a cash subsidy to boost trade.

The Economic Times reported in June that exporters and traders had asked for a 10 percent cash subsidy to boost channa exports at a time when prices had fallen below the minimum support price (MSP) on the back of record production.

"We are awaiting a reply from the government," The Economic Times quoted Bimal Kothari, chairman of Indian Pulses and Grains Association, as saying. Kothari added that India had a "huge" stock of channa.

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In his response in the Lok Sabha, Goyal also said free import of tur and urad dal until the end of FY23 was decided "after carefully analysing production, availability, prices and market conditions to protect the interest of domestic farmers while ensuring adequate availability at reasonable prices for all the consumers across India".

Prices having been searing in India for several years now, with the headline retail inflation at 7.01 percent in June, the 33rd consecutive month it stayed above the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4 percent. It was also the sixth month in row that inflation was above the 6 percent upper-bound of the 2-6 percent tolerance range. The government and the central bank have been forced to take steps to ease the price pressure.