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Informist, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025

 

--Govt imposes 30% import duty on yellow peas, effective Saturday 

 

MUMBAI – The government has imposed an import duty of 30% on yellow peas with a bill of lading date on or after Saturday, according to a notification by the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, released late on Wednesday. The import duty will be effective Saturday, the notification said.

 

Import of yellow peas will now attract 10% Standard Rate and 20% Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess, according to the notification. However, the duty will not be imposed on imports of yellow peas with a bill of lading on or before Friday, the notification said.

 

The notification seeks to amend the earlier announcement of zero import duty on yellow peas, which was set to expire on Mar. 31, 2026.

 

India's duty-free yellow pea import policy, introduced in December 2023 to combat high pulses inflation, has undergone several extensions. The policy was initially set to expire in March 2024 but has been extended multiple times, with the last extension in May 2025. Prior to December 2023, imports of yellow peas attracted a 50% import duty. 

 

With no duty, yellow pea has become India's highest-imported legume in terms of volume. India imported a record 6.63 million tonnes of pulses in 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), nearly double that in 2023-24. At 2.9 million tonnes, yellow peas accounted for about 45% of the total imports of pulses. In the first five months of FY26, the country imported 291,926 tonnes of yellow peas, down 70% on year, data from the commerce ministry showed.

 

Early in October, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices had urged the government to ban the import of yellow peas. Prior to that, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had expressed concerns that duty-free imports depress domestic prices of pulses and discourage farmers. He wrote to the food and consumer affairs minister in August, seeking the imposition of 50% customs duties on yellow pea imports to protect Indian farmers and promote self-reliance in pulses.  End

 

Reported by Shreya Shetty

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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