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Govt seeks info on lentil stock to curb price manipulation
Undisclosed stocks will be treated as hoarding and action under the Essential Commodities Act will be initiated, according to the order
The Centre on Wednesday invoked the Essential Commodities Act, asking traders, supply-chain intermediaries and retailers of lentil (masur) to declare stocks held by them, after a review showed signs of cartelisation to ratchet up prices ahead of a festive season, when demand soars.
“All the stakeholders should mandatorily disclose their masur stock on [the] stock disclosure portal managed by the department on every Friday,” an order of the consumer affairs department said.
Undisclosed stocks will be treated as hoarding and action under the Essential Commodities Act will be initiated, according to the order. Under the Act, the government can seize stocks, close down a business found violating rules and prosecute black-marketeers.
“We are all for fair trade and profits, but the government will not tolerate cartelisation, which is against the interest of consumers and farmers,” consumer affairs secretary Rohit Kumar Singh told HT.
Food inflation is a pressing concern in the world’s fifth-largest economy, which galloped to 11% in July. Pulses inflation came in at 13.27%, compared to a rise of 10.53% in the previous month.
The Centre has been monitoring prices of all essential commodities in the run-up to the festive season, beginning next month, the official said.
The senior-most consumer affairs department bureaucrat said he had ordered broad-based procurement of lentils at minimum support prices (MSP) for a state-owned stockpile after summer harvests, a month away. If traders collude to raise prices, the government will be forced to pay higher than floor rates or MSP for the lentil stockpile.
To tame inflation, India has banned rice and wheat shipments abroad, levied a 40% duty on onion export and allow duty-free imports of pulses.
The government is stepping up imports of lentils from Canada and African nations, but a “few players are trying to manipulate the market against the interest of the consumers and the nation”, Singh said.
“The government is watching the developments very closely and would initiate stringent measures to get the stock released into the market so that availability of all pulses at reasonable prices in the festival season is ensured,” the official said.
This year, prices of pigeon peas (tur) and black gram (urad) have been elevated because of a patchy monsoon in 2022-23 in rain-fed growing belts in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Maharashtra, a major tur grower, saw unseasonal heavy rains in October 2022. This has led to a drop of 18.3% and 3.7% in production tur and urad, although overall output of lentils went up slightly, according agriculture ministry’s estimates.
