The centre has ruled out allowing states to import pulses as it fears that presence of more players in the global market will lead to exorbitant rise in prices in the international markets.

"The government decided that permitting additional players in the international market will cause global prices of pulses to rise exorbitantly," Minister of State for Food and Agriculture KV Thomas said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

He said that Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have requested the Centre to allow them to import pulses. These states also asked for the subsidy which the Centre has been disbursing to its stare-run trading firms like MMTC, PEC, STC and agri cooperative Nafed on the pulses import.

Thomas also said by allowing states to import, there could be complexities in implementation of the scheme.