India removes duty on chana, extends import window for yellow peas again to boost pulses’ supply

With prices of pulses showing no signs of cooling off, the Centre has taken further steps to boost the supplies by removing the duty on desi chana (Bengal gram) while extending the import window for yellow peas till October 31, 2024. Chana or chickpeas attracted an import duty of 60 per cent.

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Through an extraordinary gazette notification issued on Friday night, the Government announced the reduction of import duty on desi chana to nil, which will come into effect from Saturday, May 4, and also the extension of import window for yellow peas, which are used as a substitute for chana, till end-October.

In early April, the Government extended the duty-free import of yellow peas by two months to June 30, 2024. Anticipating a shortfall in chana output, the Government in December 2023 had allowed imports of duty-free chana imports till March 31, 2024 and subsequently extended it till April 30.

Chana prices have been ruling higher than the minimum support price (MSP) of ₹5,440 per quintal by 10-15 per cent across the key producing regions in Central India, mainly on account of lower production due to a dip in acreages. As per the second advance estimate, the chana crop size for 2023-24 is seen marginally lower at 121.61 lakh tonnes over the previous year’s 122.67 lakh tonnes.

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The bullish trend in the chana prices has made it tough for Government agencies to procure pulse crops at MSP for the buffer stocks. As per the procurement data on the NAFED portal, the chana purchases stood at 765 tonnes in the current season.

“Since the last month, chana prices have been on a bullish trend and the government procurement was less. Traders are actively purchasing chana. For the last two years, chana prices had ruled below the MSP and farmers had reduced the area this year. Due to the reduced area, production was affected. The stocks available with the government agencies is also less. On the consumer front, the duty reduction is a welcome step, but from the farmers view it is not good as they were getting good prices after a long time. As about 70 per cent of the crop has already arrived in the market, only those farmers who were holding their produce may get affected” said Rahul Chauhan of Igrain India.

While India has been importing chana from least developed countries like Tanzania at zero duty, other major producers like Australia was unable to export due to the hefty duty, Chauhan said. India’s chana imports are likely to have more than doubled to 1.49 lakh tonnes during 2023-24 over same previous year’s 59,255 tonnes.

The overall pulses production as per the second advance estimates for 2023-24 is seen lower at 234.42 lakh tonnes compared to the previous year’s 260.58 lakh tonnes. This is mainly on account of shortfall in production of urad, moong and chana.

The latest extension of the yellow pea import window till October may result in a higher-than-expected inflow of the commodity. Trade estimates imports of around 1.5 million tonnes of yellow peas so far, from December last year. Bimal Kothari, chairman of the India Pulses and Grains Association had recently said that by June-end the imports of yellow peas are likely to be in the range of 1.7-1.8 million tonnes.