The agriculture ministry said that farmer-friendly policy measures have helped reduce import of pulses, wheat and edible oils.
Import of pulses declined by 10 lakh tonnes from FY17 to 56.5 lakh tonnes in 2017-18, resulting in saving of foreign exchange amounting to Rs 9,775 crore, the ministry said in a statement.
As per the government’s third advance estimate, output of pulses especially gram, urad and tur is projected at 24.51 million tonnes in 2017-18 as a result of significant increase in the area coverage and productivity of all major pulses.
In 2016-17, production of pulses was pegged at 23.13 million tonnes. To check rise in price of pulses, the Centre has been taking steps to boost their output.
India is the biggest producer, importer (4-6mt) and consumer (26-27 million tonnes) of pulses in the world. To ensure that farmers get remunerative prices, the government has imposed import duty and put quantitative restrictions on the various varieties of pulses.
Import duty on chickpeas has been fixed at 60%, while that for yellow peas is 50%, 30% for lentils and 10% for tur.
The government has also imposed a quantitative cap of 2 lakh tonnes per year on tur dal and 3 lakh tonnes on urad and moong.
In case of peas, import of 1 lakh tonne is allowed for three months till June this year.
“Exports of all pulses have been allowed from November 22, 2017.
Incentive at 7% under Merchandise Exports from India Scheme has been sanctioned for export of chana,” it said.