Centre says tur dal prices rising since July second week

NEW DELHI: With prices of tur dal on the rise, the Centre on Friday asked all States and UTs to ensure that stockists and traders disclose quantities of tur dal held by them.

The direction comes amid reports that tur dal sales are being restricted to create artificial scarcity. The Centre is monitoring the prices of pulses closely. Currently, it has 38 lakh tonnes of pulses in buffer stock and the same is being released to boost the domestic supply.

On Friday, the Department of Consumer Affairs issued a “directive to all the States and UTs to enforce stock disclosure by stockholders of Tur under Section 3(2)(h) and 3(2)(i) of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955”.

States and Union Territories (UTs) have also been told to monitor and verify the stocks. Besides, they have been asked to direct stockholder entities to upload the data of stocks held by them on the department’s online monitoring portal on a weekly basis, according to an official statement.

“There are reports that some sections of stockists and traders are resorting to restricted sales in an attempt to create artificial scarcity to push the price upward,” it added. The retail price of tur dal has been on an upward trend from second week of July, following the slow progress in kharif sowing as compared to last year.

The less sowing area is due to excess rainfalls and water logging conditions in parts of major tur dal growing states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

“The Centre is closely watching the overall availability and prices of pulses in the domestic as well as overseas markets to take necessary pre-emptive measures in an event of unwarranted price rise in the upcoming high demand festival months,” the statement said.

There is sufficient availability of pulses in the domestic market, the Centre said. Still, it is releasing pulses from its buffer stock of 38 lakh tonnes to further augment supply in the market.

Area under pulses is down at 122.11 lakh hectares as on August 12 of this kharif sowing season as against 127.22 lakh hectares in the year ago period. Tur dal acreage has fallen to 42 lakh ha from 47.55 lakh ha.