Govt to sell tur dal at Rs 55 per kilo in ration shops

Mumbai: After stocking tur dal for 10 months and causing a loss of nearly Rs 550 crore, the state government on Tuesday decided to sell it at Rs 55 per kg in ration shops and at Rs 75 to Rs 80 per kg for schools, hospitals and the open market. With this, the market rates of tur are set to fall as the government supplies to ration shops and the new crop hits the market, sources said.

After a huge crop of tur last year, the state government purchased 25.25 lakh quintal tur from farmers.

Now after milling, 17 to 18 lakh tur dal is available for sale with the government.

This tur was purchased for Rs 50.50 per kg from farmers but no decision was taken in terms of its sale in the past 10 months.

The new tur from this year’s Kharif season is ready and procurement will start but there is no place in warehouses.  

Hence, the government on Tuesday decided to sell it in ration shops. However, prices of tur have reached up to Rs 78 per kg, implying a loss of Rs 28 per kg for the government due to stocking of tur for 10 months. The cost of stocking is approximately Rs 10 per kg to which milling, transport and other costs have been added to reach around Rs 28 per kg.

As such, the state would suffer losses to the tune of Rs 550 crore, sources said. Officials said that though new tur dal is on the market, no one will purchase in rural areas.

The government thus faces the uphill task of selling 18 lakh tur dal as there is no place to store tur this year.