After tur dal, govt to tender 5,000 tonnes of urad import

This would be second tender to be floated by state-run MMTC for import of pulses

To give consumers some relief from spiralling prices of pulses, the government has decided to soon float another tender for import of 5,000 tonnes of urad dal to boost supply.

This would be the second tender to be floated by state-run MMTC for import of pulses. The agency has already invited bids for import of 5,000 tonnes of tur dal (pigeon peas) and the shipments are expected to reach by September.

A decision to import additional quantities of pulses was taken at a meeting of the committee of secretaries (CoS) held last week, according to sources.

"The CoS reviewed prices of essential items. It discussed in detail about sharp rise in retail prices of pulses and recommended the Commerce Ministry to take measures to improve domestic availability of urad through imports," sources said.

The CoS recommended state-run agencies like MMTC to come out with import bids for 5,000 tonnes of urad, they added.

The government is taking precautionary measures to keep prices of essential commodities under control even as retail food inflation declined to 4.8% during May.



To work out a strategy to check inflation in pulses and other food items, the Consumer Affairs Ministry has called a meeting of state consumer affairs ministers on July 7.

Retail prices of most pulses including tur have breached Rs 100 per kg mark in most parts of the country due to supply crunch in the wake of a decline in domestic production by nearly two million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) on account of unfavourable weather conditions earlier this year.

Meanwhile, good monsoon and relatively high prices of pulses compared to other crops is encouraging farmers to sow pulses in more area in this kharif season, which could also help check prices of lentils.

There was 80% increase in sowing of pulses area at 11.04 lakh hectare till last week of the kharif season, as against 6.14 lakh hectare in the year-ago period, as per the data released by the Agriculture Ministry.

India imports about four million tonnes of pulses, largely through private trade, to meet domestic shortfall.

Pulses production is estimated to have fallen to 17.38 million tonnes in 2014-15 crop year (July-June) from 19.25 million tonnes in the previous crop year due to deficient monsoon last year and unseasonal rains and hailstorms during March-April this year.