New Delhi : Indian intelligence agencies have unearthed a murky international nexus in Canada controlled by an Indian honcho working for a conglomerate pushing up prices of the pulses, particularly masur dal (red lentils), imported by the Indian merchants.
The conglomerate is buying the red lentil in Canada at an inflated rate which goes up to Rs 1500 more than the actual price for a quintal and as such the price has skyrocketed in Canada, the biggest exporter of masur dal to India supplying 80% of the pulses imported from abroad.
The Indian importers are forced to buy at higher price and as such the traders in India are unable to bring down the prices, all because of the clear cut attempts to corner and hoard the Canadian stocks to create an artificial scarcity and then eventually ship them to India at higher prices, the intelligence agencies said.
In a report to the government, they reported how the companies are putting up higher bids for the poor man’s pulses in Canada on the pretext of importing to Turkey while another group has parked thousands of tonnes of pulses in Dubai before it is sent to India to be sold at the puffed up prices. The situation has worsened in the market since tonnes of pulses are lying in the ships docked in the Mumbai port.
Out of 151,000 tonnes of pulses imported in January through the Mumbai port, as much as 63,000 tonnes were not sold, leading to a shortage that further spiralled the prices.
Despite being the world”s largest producer of the pulses, India has to import three-four million tonnes a year to meet the growing domestic demand. It is this factor which is being exploited by those engaged in jacking up the prices right at the level of the purchases from the foreign markets.
The Centre has created a buffer stock of 50,000 tonnes of pulses and its import of another 26,000 tonnes is in the pipeline, but that may not be able to bring down the prices until all the stock is put in the market. Only last week, Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan announced that the Centre would procure one lakh tonnes more in this financial year, asking the states to send their requirements.
