With price crashing in domestic market, no takers for govt’s imported pulses

This year on the pulses front there is the problem of plenty. The Centre last year faced the ire of billions of consumers over the unprecedented rise in prices of lentils and now the government is struggling to find buyers for more than 36,000 tonne of pulses procured through imports at the rate of Rs 104 per kg.

As prices of pulses have crashed in the domestic market, states are not showing interest in buying imported pulses even at the rate of  Rs 66 per kg, almost half of the procured price. To address the issue, the Centre has asked its institutions like Railways, Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP), Army, etc to buy the price sensitive commodity for their consumption at the reduced rate.

This is not the end of their woes. In paramilitary organisations, the existing practice is to procure the required amount of commodities under free supply category for their personnel two years in advance on the basis of their demand forecast.

“Since, we have to provide pulses and other food grains much in advance to our forces and for that, we procure the best quality grains through a tendering process. Also, in forces, the ration for each jawan is fixed, so as per norms procurement of pulses cannot exceed the stipulated limit,” a senior government official said, adding that Army can prove to be the saviour of government as it’s a big organisation with huge daily consumption.

The Centre had contracted to import 1,76,000 tonne pulses through MMTC, of which 36,000 ton have already landed at Mumbai and Chennai ports. Surprisingly, out of the total imported pulses, only 7,000 tonne pulses have been procured by states till date. The states which have lifted imported pulses include Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

According to a senior official, recently the Consumers Affairs and Food Supply Ministry had invited tenders from states for lifting the stock of tur and urad at Rs 66 and Rs 82 per kg respectively, but only a few states, mostly BJP-ruled, participated in the process. “After  failing to attract states, the ministry floated the idea of auctioning the pulses to private players, which was also abandoned after they (private players) fixed the auction price at Rs 58 per kg,” an official said.

Talking to Millennium Post commodity expert Ramesh Chandra Lahoti said, “If government fail to sell the imported pulses within a month, it will be a big headache for the Centre as after mid-September, the domestic produce will start arriving at mandis, which will bring down  tur prices to about Rs 5,000 per quintal, equal to minimum support price. If that happens, it would be very challenging for the government to sell their imported pulses.”