According to India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), the government's decision to levy agriculture infrastructure and development cess of 20-50 percent on imported pulses will not have any impact on prices as the rise in cess will be neutralized by lowering of customs duty.

In Budget 2021, the government proposed to reduce import duty to 10 percent on peas, Kabuli chana, Bengal gram and lentils. Currently, the duty on chana is 60 percent, peas at 50 percent, Kabuli chana at 40 percent and lentil masoor at 30 percent.

"The impact is zero. We have not issued as the status quo remains. The amount of cess introduced gets neutralized with lowering of import duty to a flat rate of 10 percent on four varieties of pulses," IPGA Vice-Chairman Bimal Kothari said

The association wants the government to keep the import duty on pulses higher than the minimum support price to check cheaper shipments, he said. The government has proposed to slap an agricultural infrastructure and development cess of 20 percent on lentil masoor, 30 percent on Kabuli chana 40 percent on peas and 50 percent on Bengal gram and chickpeas.

Kothari said the country's pulses imports have been declining for the last three years from the level of 60 lakh tonnes in 2016-17 in the wake of rising domestic production. The pulses imports remained lower at 20 lakh tonnes during the April-January period of 2020-21 fiscal, as against 26 lakh tonnes in the entire previous fiscal, he added.

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