India assures Mozambique of unrestricted tur, urad imports till March 2024

India has told exporters of pulses in Mozambique that it will import pigeon peas (tur) and urad without any quantity restrictions until March 2024.

In a statement, The High Commission of India in Maputo told exporters in Mozambique that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Government of India has emphatically clarified that India will import tur dal and urad dal under the “Free Category” (OGL) till March 31, 2024.

“The import of the tur dal will be done by Government of India freely without any restriction on quantity or those enshrined in the modalities for import of the same under the bilateral MoU between India and Mozambique,” the release said. Exporters can export tur dal without any upper limit till March 31, 2024.

Further, the Indian High Commission has re-emphasised that MoU quota for the assured minimum purchase of 2 lakh tonnes (lt) of pigeon pea by India from Mozambique that was renewed in November 2020 has no relevance under the free import policy regime for the pigeon peas by India till March 31, 2024. “Government has also removed import duty of 10 per cent on pigeon peas with effect from March 3, 2023 in order to avoid the procedural hurdle created by the need for importers to produce country of origin certificate to avail of the Duty Free Preferential Treatment Scheme”.

Rain-hit

Erratic and excess rains had impacted the production of tur and urad during kharif 2022 season and in the current cropping season the acreage has been lower on account of delayed progress of monsoon in key growing regions of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Per the latest sowing data, pulses have been sown on 96.84 lakh hectares (lh) as on July 28 compared with 109.15 lakh ha in the year ago period. Acreage under tur is down at 31.51 lh (37.50 lh). Similarly, the area under urad is also down at 25.83 lh (30.06 lh).

This article has been republished from The Hindu