The Agriculture Ministry has said that farmer-friendly policy measures have helped reduce import of pulses, wheat and edible oils. Import of pulses declined by 10 lakh tonnes from FY17 to 56.5 lakh tonnes in 2017-18, resulting in saving of foreign exchange amounting to Rs 9,775 crore, the Ministry said in a statement. India is the biggest producer, importer (4-6mt) and consumer (26-27 million tonnes) of pulses in the world. To ensure that farmers get remunerative prices, the Government has imposed import duty and put quantitative restrictions on the various varieties of pulses.
Import duty on chickpeas has been fixed at 60%, while that for yellow peas is 50%, 30% for lentils and 10% for tur. The Government has also imposed a quantitative cap of 2 lakh tonnes per year on tur dal and 3 lakh tonnes on urad and moong. In case of peas, import of 1 lakh tonne is allowed for three months till June this year.
“Exports of all pulses have been allowed from November 22, 2017. Incentive at 7% under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme has been sanctioned for export of chana,” it said.
Source:-Dailyshippingtimes.com
