Revenue department proposes 10% import duty on chana

The Department of Revenue in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture proposes a 10% import duty on gram or generally referred to as chick peas or chana.

According to officials, while this was a long standing proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture, Revenue Department has taken the initiative this time following sharp decline in prices of this commodity.

In the wholesale market, the prices are ruling just around the Minimum Support Prices of Rs 3,100 per quintal and even come down at some places.

 Officials said, even if the production estimates for gram is moderate compared to last year where there was good crop in 2013-2014, the proposal is aimed at curbing cheap imports primarily for the purpose processing and refining for further end use.

Over and above that, there is there is very high carry over stock of gram with the procurement agencies while prices are on a downslide. At present import of pulses is duty free across the board for any category. Similarly, export of pulses is prohibited except Chickpea (Kabuli Chana) and organic pulses including lentils upto 10,000 mn tonne per annum.

Under advance authorisation scheme, import of pulses is allowed for export after processing and value addition domestically in county. India imports dried peas and chickpeas from Australia and Tanzania and the total import figure for the year 2014-15 stood around Rs 1.10 lakh metric tonne, much less than 2.76 lakh mn tonne the previous year.

Not only for chick peas, prices across pulses have been ruling flat around Rs 3,000 per quintal since the sharp rise witnessed in 2012. The prices of chickpeas had gone up to a high of around Rs 5,500 per quintal. India is the largest producer and importer of pulses. Tur (Pigeon pea), Gram (Chickpea), Urad (Black gram), Moong (Green gram), Masoor (lentils) and Peas are major pulses.

Production of chana is concentrated in central and southern parts of India. Production trends during the past 15 years indicated that except for a few years in the early 2000s the output of chana fluctuated at around 6 million tonnes for over a decade till 2007-08. However, production has steadily increased thereafter and largely in tune with the trends in yield levels and reached about 8.8 million tonnes in 2012-13.

As per market data, the area under sowing of Gram is at 69.43 lakh hectares in December 2014 lower than the last year’s figure of 83.89 lakh hectares. State wise, sowing area of gram in Rajasthan has reached 14.47 lakh hectares as on December 2014 which is higher than 14.92 lakh hectares seen during the same time last year while in Telengana, sowing area of gram has reached 0.63 lakh hectares in December 2014 much lower than 1.15 lakh hectares seen during the same time last year.

The declining trend in sowing area is also observed in Andhra Pradesh where the sowing area of gram has reached 2.672 lakh hectares lower than 4.17 lakh hectares seen during the same time last year. Similarly, in Maharashtra, sowing area has reached 8.04 lakh hectares, lower than 11.97 lakh hectares seen during the same time last year.

As per the 1st Advance Estimates from Ministry of Agriculture production of Kharif Pulses is forecast to be 5.20 million mn tonne in 2014-15 compared to 6.02 million mn tonne (4th Advance estimates) and 5.91 million mn tonne in 2012-13.