A day after Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the increase in the prices of essential commodities, the party on Friday said the "dal crisis is a man-made scam of over Rs 2.5 lakh crore".
"People of India have paid 150 per cent to 200 per cent extra for pulses alone during 15 months of the Modi government (April, 2015 to July, 2016). This comes to over Rs 2.5 lakh crore for this period," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala told reporters.
"This robbery is clear when one compares the MSP/import price of pulses -- even after adding Rs 5 per kg of processing fee plus Rs 10 per kg of transportation charges and Rs 5 per kg of profit -- as against the actual sale price to ordinary consumer," he added.
Surjewala also said the price of pulses has been ranging between Rs 130 and Rs 200 per kg since April, 2015 to date.
"It is clear that the average price of pulses has been in the range of Rs 150 per kg in the last 15 months," he said.
"So, profiteering of Rs 85/90 per kg (Rs 150 per kg of average price minus Rs 60/65 per kg of final sale price) is writ large. When multiplied by 23 million tonnes (2.30 crore tonnes) of annual consumption of pulses, this figure comes to Rs 2,50,000 crore for a 15-month period between April, 2015 to July, 2016," he added.
Surjewala further asked how people paid a mark up profit of 150 per cent to 200 per cent as private players, hoarders sold 'dal' costing Rs 50-60 per kg at prices ranging from Rs 150-200 per kg.
"The average price of 'imported pulses' in 2013-14 was Rs 34.73 per kg, in 2014-15 was Rs 37.32 per kg and in 2015-16 was Rs 41.80 per kg," said Surjewala.