The government may give in to the industry demand for extending the provision to import pulses duty free beyond March as the production in this rabi season is expected to fall compared to last year.

Speaking to media on the sidelines of a trade event on pulses, Keshav Desiraju, Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs said the Government would take a decision on extending the duty free import of pulses in next few days.

Assuring the industry of a stable export-import policy, he said "We must also safeguard the interests of farmers, traders and consumers. We cannot have a healthy market if the needs of these stakeholders are not met".

The pulses processing companies have urged the government to set up 'Dal Mill upgradation' fund of Rs 5,000 crore, similar to the Technology Upgradation Fund set aside for the textile industry.

Pravin Dongre, Chairman, Indian Pulses and Grains Association said the 20,000 dal processing mills in the country currently are fragmented with an average processing capacity of 2-5 tonnes a day.

"We need large mills with latest technology to process about 300 tonnes a day. The investment to set up such units, works up to Rs 100 crore as procuring land alone would add to major cost. We need government support in the form of interest rate subvention and duty free import of machinery," he said.

Large scale mills will not only deliver better quality products but also reduce cost and cut wastage by extending the shelf life of dal at the consumer end, he said.

Dongre expects pulses imports this year to cross all time high 4 million tonne recorded last year due to lower domestic production and rising demand.

Pulses prices would start increasing from June due to lower output, he said.

Urging the state governments to lift the stock restrictions as done in Rajasthan, he said contrary to common belief prices tend to go up in the long term with these kind of limits. Prices may fall initially as traders and farmers offload their stock at the same time. The stock availability will be constrained when it is required most.

Chana production in this rabi season is expected to fall 15 per cent to 55.63 lakh tonnes due to early withdrawal of monsoon last year and hailstorm early this year damaging crops in Madhya Pradesh, said GGN Research which conducted the study on behalf of IPGA.

However, lentils and yellow peas output may increase to 64 per cent and 32 per cent to 7 lakh tonnes and 6 lakh tonnes, said the report that was unveiled in the conference.

IPGA plans to hold Pulses Conclave at Jaipur next year to conduct various activities in line with the UN declaring 2016 as the year of pulses.

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