The department of consumer affairs on Wednesday urged the states to continuously monitor the prices of tur and urad and take action against any violation of the stock limit order.

In a meeting chaired by Nidhi Khare, additional secretary, department of consumer affairs, to review stock disclosure of tur and urad varieties of pulses, and the implementation of stock limits by the state governments was reviewed.

“The action taken by states to verify the mismatches between quantities pledged by market players with banks and quantities declared on the stock disclosure portal and the enforcement of stock limits were also discussed with the states,” according to an official statement.

On June 2, to curb hoarding and speculation amid rising prices, the government had imposed limits on the stocks of tur and urad dal. The stock limit is applicable to a range of entities such as wholesalers to retailers, millers and importers and its effective till October 31.

Retail inflation in tur and urad in May, 2023 was 16.78% and 4.96% respectively while inflation in pulses and product category was 6.56%.

Recently, the government removed the procurement ceiling of 40% of total marketable surplus for tur, urad and masoor under the price support scheme. Curiously, the move comes when elevated prices of three varieties forced the government to impose stock limits for urad and tur last week.

However, actual procurement of pulses tur, urad and moong by Nafed, the official procurement agency, has been minimal in the last couple of years as mandi prices ruling far above the Minimum Support Price (MSP)).

Currently mandi prices of tur are ruling around Rs 100/kg against MSP of Rs 66/kg because of decline production and sluggish imports.

In March, the consumer affairs ministry had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Khare to monitor the stock of tur held by entities like importers, millers, stockists, traders etc in close coordination with state governments.

This article has been republished from The Financial Express