The Indian government on Thursday extended the import duty exemption given on tur and urad dal for another year till March 31, 2025. The Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued an order stating the extension, which has been effective since October 2021 and will now continue till March 31, 2025. 






Currently, India is experiencing high food inflation, which increased to 8.7 per cent in November, against 6.61 per cent in October, reported Business Standard. The prices of pulses logged an inflation of 20 per cent in November. Notably, they also increased the import duty exemption for masur dal by one year to March 2025. 


Further, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana was also given an extension by a duration of five years till 2028. As per the scheme, underprivileged homes are given 5 kg of grains on a monthly basis. The scheme is the free grain distribution programme of the government. 


A reduction in domestic production has also caused tur prices to increase in the past. Recently, the prices have stabilised a bit from Rs 156.5 in November to Rs 154 per kg in December. The Indian government also extended the duty-free import policy in January for tur and urad dal till March 31, 2024, anticipating a reduction in domestic production.


Notably, urad production was registered at nearly 1.5 million tonne to 1.6 million tonne, compared to the earlier year’s production of 1.77 million tonne. Earlier this year in October, citing the analysis by the Bank of Baroda (BoB), Business Standard reported that tur and urad production could possibly decline to the lowest levels in the last three years in the kharif season.


The tur production in the 2023 kharif season was logged at around 3.22 million tonne to 3.27 million tonne, against 3.31 million tonne reported in the 2022-23 season, indicating a drop of nearly 2.7 per cent from the earlier year, the analysis revealed. 


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