Food Minister Ramvilas Paswan on Tuesday said the Centre has directed all state governments to lift all sort of stock holding limits on pulses because of adequate supplies and drop in prices.
"The stock holding limits on all pulses has been lifted with immediate effect as there is no shortage of pulses in the country and prices have also fallen," Paswan said in a series of tweets. He said the move will help pulses producers.
The Centre had in September last year extended the stock holding limits on all pulses for one-year as prices showed little falling.
The stock limit on pulses were in place on and off prior to 2015. But states were empowered to implement it strictly towards the end of 2015 when dal prices soared to Rs 200/kg to check hoarding and contain price rise.
However, with pulses production in 2016-17 reaching an all-time high of over 22 million pulses, prices of most pulses particularly tur, moong and masur have dropped below their minimum support price, forcing the government to intervene.
"Under the Essential Commodities Act, states have been empowered to impose stock holding limits, today the Central government withdrew that order as pulses prices have fallen below MSP at several places," a senior official said.
He said the notification comes into effect immediately and now it is up to the states to implement the same.
After the order, several states had prohibited traders and wholesalers from holding pulses stocks beyond a certain limit to ensure adequate supplies in the open market.
However, following a bumper production, the order had come to haunt traders who resisted from purchasing aggressively as they couldn't stock.
Welcoming the move, India Pulses and Grain Association Chairman Pravin Dongre said: "The decision of the government to lift stock limits is prudent and timely." Dongre said that this will remove the supply bottlenecks and create a level playing field for growers, sellers and consumers alike.
"The risks of under-stocking at dealer level and over- supply at the grower levels have been mitigated by this timely step," he added.
With a series of measures taken to check price rise and boost local supply in last two years, the country's pulses production has improved and is expected to touch a record 22.40 million tonnes in 2016-17 crop year ending June, up by 37 per cent from the year-ago period. This is expected to reduce the country's dependence on imports.
Meanwhile, data from the ministry of consumer affairs showed that pulses price in many cities had weakened by Rs 5 to 10 per kg at the retail level in the last one month due to good supplies.