In a move that would help small pulses importers to recover the advances they had paid to overseas importers, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has decided to ease its late April notification which barred import of yellow peas. It has issued a new notification allowing import up to 125 tonnes, covering advance payment made early this year to sellers abroad. India imports peas primarily from Canada, Ukraine and France.
As per the DGFT notification, representations have been received from various small importers, for allowing them to import a minimum quantity of three to five full container load per contract, to enable recovering their funds locked with overseas suppliers. It has accordingly been decided to allow import of a maximum of 125 metric tonnes (five full container loads) of peas per contract or less, irrespective of the advance payment made before April 25. However, after that import of peas on advance payment would be again suspended, with traders allowed to import the commodity only through Letter of Credit (LC).
DGFT has said eligible applicants may accordingly approach their concerned jurisdictional regional authorities for registering and enhancement of their contracts. Besides, India’s import of all varieties of pulses, including peas, has declined since November 2017, when the central government levied 50% import duty on it. Following this, the government also levied a 30% import duty on chickpeas and lentils in December. The duty on chickpeas was raised to 40% in February and further to 60% in March.