The Centre has eased the stock limits on pulses such as tur and urad to ensure higher supplies.
In an extraordinary gazette notification issued on Monday, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has made an amendment to the Removal of Licensing Requirements, Stock Limits and Movement Restrictions on Specified Foodstuffs Order, 2016.
The Removal of Licensing Requirements, Stocks Limits and Movement Restrictions on Specified Foodstuffs (Third Amendment) Order, 2023, will come into force with immediate effect and will incorporate pulses such as tur and urad.
Under the new order, the stock limit for wholesalers is 200 tonnes for each of these pulses. Earlier, under the September 25 notification, the stock limit for wholesalers was reduced to 50 tonnes.
The stock limit for retailers has been retained at five tonnes. For big chain retailers, the stock limit is 5 tonnes for each of the pulses at each retail outlet, and 200 tonnes (earlier 50 tonnes) at the depots for each of the pulses.
For millers, the stock limit has been s revised to the last three months’ production or 25 per cent of the annual installed capacity, whichever is higher. Earlier, it was reduced to 1 month of production or 10 per cent of the annual capacity
Importers can now hold stocks up to 60 days from the date of customs clearance as against the earlier 30 days.
‘Declare regularly’
Further, the respective legal entities should declare their stocks position on the Department of Consumer Affairs portal and if stocks held by them are higher than the prescribed limits, they should bring the same to the prescribed limits within 30 days, the notification said. Also, the trade has been told to ensure that pulses stocks are regularly declared and updated on the ministry portal.
Following the weak kharif sowing and rainfall pattern in June, the Government had imposed stock limits on these pulses till October 31, which was then extended till December 31, 2023, to curb hoarding and contain the price rise. However, the prices of these pulses are ruling firm as production was impacted due to the erratic rainfall pattern.
As per the first advance estimates for kharif 2023-24 season, the production of tur is estimated at 3.42 million tonnes, about 3.3 per cent higher than 2022-23’s final estimates of 3.31 million tonnes, while urad output is seen 14.7 per cent lower at 1.51 million tonnes over last year’s 1.77 million tonnes.
