Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Traders’ body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Wednesday sent a memorandum to Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal urging him to withdraw the current government notification prescribing stock limit of pulses to 200 metric tonne for wholesalers and 5 metric tonne for retailers. According to CAIT, foodgrain traders are “up in arms” against the notification which they think is arbitrary, unjustified, and contravenes the government’s personal policy as it stands “against the normal business practices of pulses trade in the country.” Traders “regretted” that no consultation was held by the government with them ahead of issuing the notification “which is a contravention of the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for taking stakeholders in confidence before taking any policy issue.”
Industry body India Pulses and Grains Association’s spokesperson wasn’t right away readily available for comments.
Consumers Affairs Ministry on Friday had mentioned that in a constant work to crackdown on costs of important commodities like pulses, it imposed stock limits on pulses applicable to wholesalers, retailers, millers, and importers via an order. Stock limits have been prescribed for all pulses except Moong till October 31, 2021, for all states and union territories.
According to the order, the stock limit would be 200 MT for wholesalers, 5 MT for retailers even though it would be the last 3 months of production or 25 per cent of annual installed capacity, whichever is greater, for the millers. On the other hand, for importers, the stock limit would be the exact same as that of wholesaler for stocks held/imported prior to May 15, 2021, and for stocks imported immediately after that, the stock limit applicable on wholesalers will apply immediately after 45 days from the date of customs clearance.
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According to CAIT, in September 2020, the Government had categorically announced that the Essential Commodity Act or stock limit will be enforced only when the cost of the pulses will be either 50 per cent greater than the MSP or there is an emergency circumstance in the nation. However, in “defiance” of this announcement of the government, the mentioned notification on July 2 was issued.
“There are precisely eight types of pulses and after blending and processing them, they are converted in to more than 30 types of pulses. It is beyond imagination that more than 30 types of pulses will be stocked in just 100 M/T at the end of the wholesalers,” B.C. Bhartia, National President, and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT jointly mentioned in a statement. Currently, there are about 5 lakh traders in meals grains enterprises in India giving employment to more than 23 lakh people today engaged mainly for loading and unloading of goods.