New Delhi : he Centre has asked states to relax the turnover period for pulses traders as prices of the essential commodity have started declining, a senior official at the food ministry said.
“The states need to relax turnover period on pulses now… Madhya Pradesh has a stock turnover period effective for seven days, some states have for 15 days or one month…What they can do is during harvest time stock turnover period should be for 2-3 month and then gradually reduce the turnover period,” the official told Cogencis on Friday.
In October, sthe government had imposed stock limits on pulses held by licenced food processors, importers, exporters as well as large departmental retailers to prevent hoarding of the commodity and curb price rise.
The states were also directed to fix a turnover period for the sellers.
India’s overall pulses output during 2015-16 (Jul-Jun) is pegged at 17 mln tn, while the country’s pulses consumption was estimated at 24.5 mln tn in 2015-16.
Despite the country importing a record 5.8 mln tn pulses in 2015-16, there was still a gap of 1.1 mln tn between demand and supply, which led to rise in the price of the commodity.
