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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 amendments 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 cover pulses such as tur and urad.
As per the new order, the stock limits for wholesalers is 200 tonnes for each of these pulses. Earlier, the September 25th notification reduced the stock limit for wholesalers 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 depots for each of the pulses.
The stock limit for millers has been 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.
Further, the respective legal entities would declare their stocks position on the Department of Consumer Affairs portal and in case stocks held by them are higher than the prescribed limit, 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 price rise. However, the prices of these pulses are ruling firm as production was impacted due to erratic rainfall pattern.
According to the first advance estimates for the 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.
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