The high prices of pulses continue to be a pain point for both the Aam aadmi and policymakers even if WPI-based inflation remained in negative territory for the 17th straight month, in March.
Despite the continued correction for the fourth consecutive month, pulses inflation remained steep, at 34.4 per cent, in March, official data released on Monday showed. This is much higher than the 13.22 per cent increase last March.
Last March, the WPI print stood at (-) 2.33 per cent.
Food article inflation for March 2016 stood at 3.73 per cent, higher than the 3.35 per cent in February. The latest food article inflation print was much lower than the 6.27 per cent recorded in the same month last year.
Vegetable prices contracted 2.26 per cent in March against an increase of 9.27 per cent in the same month last year. Both onions and fruits saw some easing of prices in March 2016.
Manufactured product inflation — which accounts for 65 per cent weight in the WPI — grew 0.4 per cent.
Commenting on the surge in prices of pulses, Assocham President Sunil Kanoria called for “supply side responses” to address this issue. However, there may be little respite on the pulses front even in April. After easing for several months, prices of pulses have hardened in the first half of April 2016, said Aditi Nayar, Senior Economist at rating agency ICRA.
On its part, the Food Ministry is keeping a close watch on the prices and availability of pulses.
“The Centre has requested the States to project their demand for pulses so that timely release from buffer stocks can be ensured,” the Food Ministry said.
Procurement level Government agencies have procured 50,000 tonnes of pulses and 25,000 tonnes have been contracted so far during the year for import. In 2015-16, 55 lakh tonnes of pulses were also imported by private traders, 10 lakh tonnes more than the previous fiscal year’s import level.
States/UTs have been empowered to impose stock limits on pulses to check hoarding.
In order to encourage production, the Centre has already increased the minimum supply price for pulses by ₹275 per quintal for Tur and Urad, and by ₹250 per quintal for Moong.