Imports restricted for Urad and Moong

There has been huge imports of pulses in India, due to deficiency. But the government lately has put restrictions on the imports of Urad and Moong dal under the restricted category and fixed an annual cap of three lakh tonnes for their import. The international market has been performing quite well and had bumper production and hence have cheap prices. The Indian market too had great production of pulses : Urad and Moong, as compared to the previous years and due to the great harvest the prices lowered . This move will help stabilise domestic prices which have fallen below the minimum support level and are hurting farmers. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a notification said, import of Urad and Moong dal is revised from free to restricted category. However, this restriction will not apply to the government's import commitments under any bilateral and regional agreement. Moong production touched a record 2.07 million tonnes in 2016-17 crop year as against 1.59 million tonnes in the previous year. Earlier this month, the government had also put imports of pigeon peas and toor dal under the restricted category.