Take action against traders not making disclosure of tur dal stocks: Govt

The Centre on Wednesday directed state governments to take strict action against traders, millers and importers and stockists, who have not provided full disclosure about their tur dal stocks.

In a review meeting on status of stock disclosure of tur and urad with major pulses producing and consuming states, Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said that the quantity of tur dal stocks disclosed as compared to its production and consumption has also been found to be "low" in certain states.

While the number of entities registered in the stock disclosure portal has increased, it was observed that the actual number of stakeholders in certain states could be higher, he said in a statement.

"The states were directed to conduct verification of stocks held by various entities and take strict action on undisclosed stocks under relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and the Prevention of Blackmarketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980," the statement said.

To widen the coverage of market players, state governments were asked to look into the data pertaining to FSSAI licences, APMC registration, GST registration, warehouses and custom bonded warehouses.

In the meeting, the state government officials informed that they are intensifying surveillance and shared the measures being taken by them to ensure mandatory registration and disclosure of stocks on the stock disclosure portal.

Senior officials from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh participated in the meeting.

In order to assess the situation on the ground, the Department of Consumer Affairs has also deputed 12 senior officers to different state capitals and districts across major tur producing and trading centres to obtain the ground level feedback from various market players, millers and storage operators.

"Their feedback would determine further course of action," the statement added.

On March 31, the Centre had directed retailers not to keep their profit margin on pulses, especially tur dal, at "unreasonal level" in a meeting with Retailers Association of India (RAI) and major organised retailers.

They were asked to calibrate the retail margins in such a way that the composition of pulses consumption basket of households is not disturbed by price rise.

Tur prices are under pressure as the country's tur production is estimated to be lower at 36.66 million tonnes in the 2022-23 crop year (July-June), as against 42.20 million tonnes in the previous year as per the agriculture ministry's second estimate.

Tur is mainly a kharif (summer) crop.