Centre moves to rein in spiralling price of pulses

New Delhi, Oct 15: With the prices of pulses spiralling to Rs.190 per kg, the government on Thursday initiated various measures including imports and invoking the price stabilisation fund to create a buffer stock for reigning in runaway inflation in the commodity. Following an inter-ministerial group (IMG) meeting chaired by him on Wednesday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government has decided to create a buffer stock of lentils mainly through imports. "Keeping in mind that some amount of stock is available with JNPT (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Mumbai), the group decided that we build up a buffer stock preferably by imports to take care of the problem in future," Jaitley told reporters after the IMG meeting. "More quantity for the next few days will also be imported into the country so that the supply side problem can be taken care of, that will have an impact on prices," he added. Jaitley also said the government has decided to take recourse to the Rs.500 crore Price Stabilisation Fund to pay for transportation and processing of imported pulses, that would help increase supplies and make pulses available at lower prices.