Alarmed by the soaring prices of tur (split pigeon peas) and urad dal (black gram) across the country, the Centre on Friday urged states to take steps to ensure there is no hoarding. The direction comes amid reports that sales are being restricted to create artificial scarcity.
In Karnataka, the price of tur dal has shot up by a whopping Rs 15-20/kg over the past month. The retail price has now touched Rs 150-170 kg for the packed variant, which attracts 5% GST, and Rs 135-145 for the loose variant. Urad dal price has also reached a high of Rs 160 a kg.
In neighbouring Kerala, the price of tur dal jumped 20% from Rs 100/kg in July to Rs 120/kg in August. Urad dal prices saw a bigger increase of 44%, from Rs 94/kg in July to Rs 135/kg now.
Odisha and Gujarat also reported a 20% increase in the prices of the two commodities.
Tamil Nadu witnessed tur dal prices going up from around Rs 100 in July to Rs 115 now.
Traders say prices will stay high till November as availability is low because farmers in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat missed the crop cycle due to heavy rains and delayed sowing.
In Telangana, tur and urad dal prices went up by Rs 10-12 and Rs 20, respectively. In Mumbai, Kolkata, Bhopal, Ranchi, Dehradu and Guwahati, tur dal prices went up by Rs 8-22.
Going through the roof
In just one month, tur dal price shot up by Rs 5-22 while urad dal prices soared by as much as Rs 10-44.