Arhar dal prices zoom to Rs 125 a kg in Odisha; no respite till Jan

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 11:

Prices of arhar dal in Odisha have zoomed from Rs 110 a kg to Rs 125 a kg, a rise of Rs 15, in just the last four days.

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Traders ascribe the sudden spurt in prices of arhar dal to low stock positions of the commodity in the international market and said there was no possibility of a dip in prices of the product for the next few months.

While good quality arhar dal is selling at Rs 12,500 a quintal, moong dal is selling between Rs 80-96 a kg. However, there has been no change in the price of Urad dal, which is still selling at its earlier price of Rs 120 a kg.

Four days back, good quality arhar dal was selling at Rs 110 a kg which is now selling at Rs 125 a kg.

“Prices of dal have gone up at places where it is produced. Stocks available at Myanmar are not sufficient to meet international demands as a result of which its prices there have scaled up to Rs 11,500 a quintal. With transportation expenses and 5% VAT added, the landing cost of dal here comes to around Rs 12,200 per quintal. We are depositing around Rs 600 towards 5% VAT per quintal. We are keeping a paltry margin of Rs 100/150 per quintal and selling at Rs 12,300 to the retailers. At the retailer level, the selling price of dal touches Rs 12,500 a quintal,” said Sudhakar Panda, secretary of Federation of All Odisha Traders’ Association (FAOTA).

The prices of dal will stabilise only around January next year when the new crop is harvested in Myanmar; till then, there is little scope of a dip in dal prices, Panda said.

“It will be November when new crop is harvested in the pulses growing areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the country. Since there is little stock of dal available in the market, the prices are bound to shoot up. The only way the prices can fall a little is if the government waives VAT on it to provide some relief to the consumers. But it is for the government to decide; FAOTA has nothing to do on that count,” the traders’ body secretary said.

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