Centre to offer urad, tur at further subsidised rates to states for retail sale

The Centre on Saturday decided to offer urad and tur from its buffer stock to states at a further subsidised rate for retail sale in order to check prices. Earlier, the Consumer Affairs Ministry had introduced a mechanism to supply pulses from the buffer stock to states at minimum support price plus 10 per cent other charges.

"In order to make the retail intervention more impactful, the offer price of pulses for retail intervention has been modified to MSP or the Dynamic Reserve Price (DRP) whichever is lower," the ministry said in a statement. Accordingly, dhuli urad is being offered to states at Rs 79 per kg for K-18 variety and at Rs 81 per kg for K-19 variety of 2018 kharif crop, it said.

Similarly, tur is being offered for retail intervention at Rs 85 per kg, it added. According to the statement, the central government has made this offer to all states and union territories. They can lift the stock in bulk or in a retail pack of 500 grams and 1 kg, depending on the requirement.

"Steps have been taken to cool down the recent increase in retail prices of tur and urad for the welfare of consumers, and to augment supply of these pulses," it said.

The retail packs are being provided for retailing at ration shops and other marketing/retail outlets of the state government such as dairy and horticulture outlets, consumer corporation society, etc.

The Centre has been building buffer stock of pulses and onion since 2015-16 under the Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) for carrying out price stabilizing interventions. For the current year, the government aims to build a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonnes of pulses, the statement added.