After sugar, govt mulls pulses stock limits for bulk consumers

After cracking down on bulk users of sugar, the government is planning to extend stock limits on bulk users of pulses as well.

“There is a proposal from the consumer affairs ministry to put stock limits on bulk users of pulses such as dal mills, hotels and other consumer industries,” a senior government official said today, without disclosing details on who would classify as a bulk user and by when the stock limits could come into force.

He said the proposal was aimed at ensuring adequate supplies of pulses in the market and controlling price rise.

Prices of most pulses in the country have nearly doubled this year on shortage concerns amid limited domestic availability.

To cool down pulses prices, government has already asked states to impose stock limits on the commodity. It has also limited the number of days importers are allowed to keep pulses at port warehouses free of cost to three and has raised port warehouse tariffs substantially to ensure faster movement of imported goods to wholesale markets.

Government had adopted a similar mechanism for stemming sugar prices. It has restricted storage of imported sugar at port warehouses and last month announced its decision to impose stock limits on bulk users of sugar that consume over a tonne of the sweetener in a month.

Bulk users have been barred from keeping more than 15 days’ sugar requirement in stock after September 19.

To rein in pulses prices, a number of states have also been taking their own initiatives apart from imposing stock limits. West Bengal, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have decided to supply some pulses to the poor at subsidised rates through the public distribution scheme, while Delhi government has been supplying pulses at wholesale rates to consumers through Mother Dairy outlets.

On Tuesday, select pulses prices in the trading activity of the Nagpur Agriculture Produce and Marketing Committee (APMC) suffered heavily on lack of demand from local flour mills amid profit-taking selling by stockists at higher level. Poor quality pulses arrival and fresh fall in Madhya Pradesh pulses also affected select pulses here, sources said.