Paswan tells Bihar Govt. to check hoarding of pulses

Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday urged the Bihar Government to check on hoarding as a measure to curb the rising price of pulses in the country.

"We have taken a decision to maintain buffer stock. The state government has to take action against hoarding. Central government is doing best, but the opposition is just playing politics on the issue. Import duty is zero percent on pulses," Paswan told the media here.

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said that the principle concern at the moment is prices of dals, especially tur dal, and therefore, the government has decided to invoke price stabilisation fund.

"It is a well known fact that India is a little over two million tons short on production as far as pulses are concerned. The shortage is made up by imports. We had a significant amount of imports into the market, but there is even some global shortage that has resulted in escalation of global price of pulses," Jaitley said.

Retail prices of tur dal yesterday rose up to Rs. 181 per kg as against Rs 85 per kg in the year-ago period, as per the data maintained by the consumer affairs ministry.

Similarly, urad dal prices have increased up to Rs. 187 per kg from Rs. 99 per kg in the said period. Much of the increase was seen in these two dals, while the increase in prices of moong dal and gram were moderate.