Centre to resume sale of subsidised Bharat chana dal, battling food inflation

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: The Centre is set to resume selling subsidised Bharat chana dal this week as part of its efforts to control accelerating food inflation and provide relief to consumers, two people aware of the matter said. “The pulse will now be available at ₹70 per kg, an increase of ₹10 from the previous price, the first person said.

“The discounted chana dal will be sold until December. With the expected arrival of about 1.3 million metric tonnes of chana from Australia, starting in the first week of November, prices of this essential food item are expected to come down," this person said. The average retail price of chana dal is ₹95/kg, which is 14.5% higher than ₹83/kg last year.

The annual retail inflation rate, based on the All-India Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 5.49% in September from 3.65% in August. This was the highest retail inflation rate since December 2023, when it was 5.69%. The inflation rate for pulses and products was 9.81% in September, the ministry of statistics & programme implementation said on 14 October.

The sale of government-procured chana dal retailed under the 'Bharat' brand, which started in October last year, was discontinued in June primarily because untimely rainfall and severe heat conditions curtailed output. Production of the gram declined to 110.39 lakh tonnes in FY24 from 122.67 lakh tonnes in FY23 and 135.44 lakh tonnes in FY22, according to data from the ministry of agriculture. About 300,000 metric tonnes of chana dal have been allocated for distribution under the Bharat dal scheme, the first person said.