Amid persistently high inflation, the Centre, on December 28 has extended the exemption given to tur & urad dal by another year, till March 31, 2025 as per an order issued by the Director General of Foreign Trade.
The order follows the government's recent decision to extend the import duty exemption for masur dal by one year to March 2025.
Also Read: Govt extends import duty exemption on masur dal by one year to March 2025
This exemption, effective since October 2021, will now last until March 31, 2025, as opposed to the earlier notification of March 31, 2024.
The notifications of extending duty free imports come at a time when India has been battling high food inflation which surged to 8.7 percent in November, up from 6.61 percent in October. The inflation rate on pulses was recorded at 20 percent in November, according to data available from the Statistics Ministry.
High food inflation has been a key concern for the government, as the general elections draw close. The Centre has already extended its free grain distribution programme, PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, by five years to 2028, providing 5 kg of grains monthly to impoverished households.
Additionally, it has taken various administrative steps to stabilize the prices of essential items like sugar, rice, pulses, vegetables & edible oils.
Tur prices have remained high in the past year due to a shortfall in domestic production. However, the government’s measures have started taking effect, and prices of tur fell to Rs 154 per kg on December 18 from Rs 156.5 a month ago.
The government on December 8 also exempted yellow peas (tur) from import duties until the end of this financial year, removing minimum import prices and port restrictions to facilitate trade.
Anticipating a shortfall in the current year due to erratic weather, the Centre in January extended the duty-free import policy for tur & urad until March 31, 2024.
Additionally, the government on June 2 allowed traders to keep only limited stocks of tur and urad. Following this step, the government released tur from the national buffer stocks to arrest the price rise.
The government launched chana dal under the packaging of ‘Bharat Dal’ at subsidized prices of Rs 60 per kg throughout the country, intending to shift consumption for those who cannot afford expensive arhar or tur dal.
The centre has also started procuring tur dal directly from farmers at market prices to build a buffer stock that will be offloaded in the market when prices rise. Funds for the procurement are being taken from the Price Stabilisation Fund.
High consumption
Tur consumption has been higher than domestic production. The country's tur output fell 20 percent to 3.43 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year (July–June) from 4.29 million tonnes a year earlier. The country consumes about 4.5 million tonnes of tur every year.
The agriculture ministry’s first advance estimates for the crop season 2023-24 put tur production slightly lower at 3.42 million tonnes.
As per government data, India imported about 778,000 tonnes of tur in calendar year 2023 from Mozambique, Myanmar and Tanzania.
Also Read: How the government launched its own Bharat brands to keep food grain prices under control
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