India Weighs Cutting Import Duties on Lentils and Yellow Peas as Monsoon Hits the Pulse Crop

India's pulses trade may be about to get a tariff adjustment. According to a Reuters report dated 1 October 2026, citing government and industry sources, New Delhi is weighing cuts to import duties on masoor (red lentils) and yellow peas in an effort to boost domestic supply and cool food inflation, after one of the weakest monsoons for pulse-growing regions in recent years. As of this writing, no formal notification has been issued — this is a policy under active consideration, not yet a confirmed change.

What's actually on the table

Under the current structure cited in the report, masoor (red lentils) carries a 10% import duty and chana (chickpeas) also carries 10%, while yellow peas carry a steeper 30% duty. An industry source told Reuters that any relief under discussion would likely be limited to masoor and yellow peas — chana duty is expected to stay where it is, specifically so the government does not discourage farmers from expanding chickpea acreage during this October's sowing window. Separately, and already confirmed rather than proposed, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has extended duty-free import status for tur (pigeon peas) and urad (black gram) through 31 March 2027.

Why now: a weak monsoon and sticky food inflation

The pressure behind the proposal is straightforward. Top pulse-growing states received up to 30% less rainfall than average during the June–September 2026 monsoon, and since pulses are predominantly rain-fed crops, this year's output is expected to fall sharply. India already leans on imports for a meaningful share of consumption — roughly 23% in 2024-25, when the country produced about 25.7 million tonnes domestically and imported around 7.3 million tonnes, according to the figures cited in the report. On the inflation side, headline food inflation stood at 5.95% in August 2026, with pigeon-pea prices up 5.6% year-on-year and black-gram prices up 7.4% year-on-year — pressure that typically intensifies further around the festive season, when chana demand in particular rises.

What this means for traders working in pulses

For businesses sourcing or trading Indian pulses, there are two separate signals here worth tracking rather than one. First, the already-confirmed piece: tur and urad remain duty-free for import into India through March 2027, which is a stable planning fact for anyone importing these categories into the Indian market over the next several months. Second, the proposal: if masoor and yellow pea duties are eased, landed costs for importers bringing those categories into India would fall, while chana is explicitly being kept out of any relief to protect domestic chickpea sowing — a reminder that government pulses policy in India is rarely a single blanket move, but a set of category-specific levers pulled to balance farmer incentives against consumer prices. For exporters and merchant traders on the supply side of chana, toor, urad and masoor dal, the practical takeaway is to build sourcing and pricing assumptions around the confirmed tur/urad duty-free window, while treating any masoor or yellow-pea duty change as a "when announced" variable rather than a done deal — and to watch for the official DGFT or Ministry of Finance notification before adjusting contracts or quotes on the strength of this report alone. SATA GreenX sources and supplies Toor Dal, Masoor Dal and Chana Dal for international buyers, and is tracking this policy discussion closely as part of normal sourcing-cost planning for the months ahead.