Centre to give subsidy to states on pulses

Finding it difficult to tame the runaway prices of pulses, the Centre on Saturday decided to give subsidy to state governments for distribution of Tur and Urad dal.

“The Centre has decided to provide subsidy on Tur and Urad for distribution of pulses by states at retail price of not more than Rs 120 per kg. For this, unmilled Tur dal is being allocated at the rate of Rs 66 per kg and unmilled Urad dal at the rate of Rs 82 per kg to the states, providing a subsidy of Rs 27 per kg for Tur Dal and Rs 14 per kg for Urad dal,” said the ministry of food and consumer affairs in a media statement.

The Centre has pegged the total subsidy outgo at Rs 24.4 crore for 10,000 metric tons of pulses, which include 8,000 MT Tur and 2,000 MT of Urad being allocated to states.

“The Central government has requested state governments to avail this benefit and utilise the available stocks for managing the prices of pulses in their respective states. Chief secretaries and food and consumer affairs secretaries of the states have been requested to project their demand immediately to ensure timely allocation from the buffer stock,” the government stated in the media statement.

The state governments have also been asked to keep a close watch on the prices and to take stringent action against hoarding of the commodity. “The Centre has already empowered the states to impose stock limits on the pulses to ensure easy availability. The government agencies have made procurement of about 50,000 MT pulses from the farmers during the Kharif marketing season, 2015-16 and has contracted 26,000 MT of pulses for import,” added the statement. It also noted that the government has initiated procurement of Rabi pulses and targeted to procure around 1, 00,000 MT of Chana and Masur to further build the buffer stock.

The Centre had earlier decided to release 10,000 metric tons of unmilled Tur dal and unmilled Urad dal.