India to penalise importers who deliberately delay clearance of consignments of pulses

To improve stock disclosure data, the government is making several changes to the e-portal, including the incorporation of text boxes for the provision of warehouses holding stocks and provisions for dealers to upload data of stocks owned by farmers lying in shop yards for auctioning.

The Department of Consumer Affairs is also in touch with the Customs Department to act against importers who deliberately delayed the clearance of their consignments of pulses.

Observing that many millers, traders, and dealers were deliberately holding their stocks in warehouses in the name of farmers to escape stock declaration, the government officials told them to declare stocks of pulses truthfully and regularly or risk the seizure of undeclared stocks by the respective state governments.

The government has clarified that stocks of pulses should be reported in the state they are physically available or stocked to avoid duplication of data, after the importers association had asked where should the imported tur dal be enumerated as a stock, at the Chennai port where it enters India or the importing states of Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

States and district administrations have been asked to intensify enforcement of stock declaration by conducting stock verification and action against undisclosed stocks under sections of the EC Act 1955 and the Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of Essential Commodities Act, 1980.

The union government has also asked states to look into the data pertaining to FSSAI licences, APMC registration, GST registration, warehouses, and custom bonded warehouses to report declarations of stock by widening the coverage of market players.