(MENAFN- Live Mint) "New Delhi: Worried about the soaring prices of pulses amid the general elections, the Union government is planning to send senior officers to assess the ground situation in relation to stock disclosure of pulses, especially tur (pigeon pea) and urad (black matpe) beginning this week, two senior officials said Centre fears that hoarding is taking place in anticipation of prices going up further hoarding crackdownThe officials will visit warehouses, mills and mandis across the country to ascertain the ground reality. The first crackdown is expected in major pulses producing states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, one of the officials said.“We are going to visit the entire country because we sense that trade entities are hoarding pulses,\" the other official said. \"In the first round, we plan to visit five to seven states, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat over this week from Monday. Although the move is aimed at all pulses, we will be focusing especially on tur, urad, yellow pea and chana (gram). The plan is to sensitise states, their machinery and stakeholders, visit mandis, premises of millers and importers and hold meetings with trade entities.” Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the Mode Code of Conduct amid the Lok Sabha elections move is in line with the government's effort to augment pulses supply and stabilize prices amid shortfall of some pulses, especially tur and urad, in the domestic market by allowing duty free imports of yellow peas from last December until June this year and productionAn import duty of 50% on yellow peas was first introduced in November 2017. However, as pulse prices rose, the Centre in early December 2023 allowed duty-free imports until March 2024 and later extended it till June Read: India's pulses imports in Jan-March drop 29% on tight suppliesAccording to the second official, India so far has imported around 1.5 million tonnes of yellow peas since December. India largely imports yellow peas, used in place of chana, from Canada and Russia. Yellow peas, in various forms such as besan (chickpea flour) and whole peas or splits, is used as an everyday commodity. It is not only a staple of street food but also a key ingredient in the rapidly growing snack food industry.“The production of pulses, especially chana, this year (as claimed by the agriculture ministry) is not comfortable. Despite this along with imports of yellow pea, we are unable to understand the reason why prices of chana other than tur and urad are rising. The impact of yellow pea imports must be reflected in chana prices but that has not been the case. The market and the price trend indicate supply tightness of chana, resulting in lower procurement by Nafed and higher purchase by private agencies. Either there is a problem with production or people in the trade are manipulating the market,” the first official added.“Trade entities have gradually started declaring their pulses stock position and to date the figure is 3-4 million tonnes that have been declared. There is no issue as such, but the declared stock is not reflected in the market. It must come into the market. So, we (consumer affairs department) are going to check the entire trail in terms of the quantity they are holding and how long they are holding the stock, disclosing and releasing it into the market.”According to the second advance estimate by the agriculture ministry, the production of chana crop is estimated at 12.1 million tonnes, marginally lower than the previous year's production. The estimate of tur for the current season has been lowered to 3.33 mt from the October estimate of 3.42 mt, but it's on par with the previous year's output. In case of urad, (kharif) output is estimated to be 1.5 million tonnes against the previous season's 1.8 million tonnes Read | Racing pulses: Why aren't dal prices dropping?InflationThough inflation in pulses in March eased a tad on month, it remained significantly high year-on-year. Retail inflation in pulses was 17.7% in March, up from 18.9% a month ago and 4.4% a year ago of Sunday, the all-India average retail prices of chana, tur and urad dals were at ₹83.60, ₹154.40 and ₹124.90 per kg, an increase of nearly 13%, 31% and 14.7% year-on-year, respectively, as per data from the consumer affairs ministry sent to the agriculture ministry and the department of consumer affairs remained unanswered at press time.“If they don't follow things as communicated by the department, they may be in trouble under the EC (Essential Commodities) Act. There are many provisions under the EC Act, including stock declaration and stock limit. We may follow use the remaining provisions to act against them,” the second official said when asked about the type of actions likely if they find on-ground discrepancy between stock declaration and availability in the market.
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