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.
To moderate the retail prices of pulses, DoCA had earlier introduced a mechanism to supply the States/UTs in bulk or in retail packs at offer price of MSP + 10% from the buffer stock maintained by the government. In order to make the retail intervention more impactful, offer price of pulses for retail intervention has been modified to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) or the Dynamic Reserve Price (DRP) whichever is lower.
Accordingly, Dhuli Urad is being offered to States/UTs for retail intervention @Rs.79 per kilo for K-18 (stock of Kharif-2018), and Rs.81 per kilo for K-19. Similarly, Tur is being offered for retail intervention @ Rs. 85 per kilo. GOI has made this offer to all the States/UTs to lift the stocks in bulk and /or in retail packs of 500gram and one kilogram, depending on the requirement. The retail packs are being provided for retailing fair price shops of PDS and other marketing/retail outlets of the state govt. such as dairy and horticulture outlets, consumer corporation society etc.
To moderate the price volatility of pulses and onions, especially in consuming centres, buffer stock was built under PSF during 2015-16 for carrying out price stabilizing interventions. Under PSF, building buffer stock of pulses up to 20 lakh MT was approved in the current year for effective market intervention. Pulses from Buffer have been utilised for several public welfare and nutritional programmes like PDS, Mid-day Meal scheme and ICDS scheme. PSF buffer stock has ensured quality as well as timely supply of affordable pulses. Through Open Market Sales, supply of pulses is augmented in a regular basis.