TAD NewsDesk, New Delhi: The Centre has issued an advisory to all the states to provide a 3-day window to the onion traders and wholesalers from date of purchase before they announce the stock limit. The consumer affairs ministry has announced this gap of 3 days to pack and grade the yield.
A senior consumer affairs ministry official,
“In order to keep a check on rising prices of onions, the government has imposed a stock limit of 25 tonnes for wholesalers and 2 tonnes for retailers. Any violation will attract strict punishment and penalty. The grace of three days will give them some time for disposing the produce before stock limit sets in.”
The stock limits will only be applied to the domestic traders and not on the importers. The onion importers are allowed to have stock in excess.
The onion traders, however, doubts on the credibility of this decision and feels as it will be of no help to them.
Rajinder Sharma, president of Azadpur Mandi Association said,
“We are demanding time period of atleast 15 days to dispose old stock. Many wholesalers and retailers have stock in excess of the limit prescribed by the government. It’s not easy to dispose these stock immediately. We need time. But government is giving three days time for new stock without mentioning about any relief related to stock we are already holding.”
To control the hiking prices, the official said about these steps by the government
“We have banned export of onions and onion seeds. Apart from that, we have released onions from buffer stock selling them at Rs 26 a kg. We intend to release a total of around 70,000 tonnes by first week of November. Moreover, cheaper imports will further help in cooling down the prices. The imposition of stock limit will immediately increase arrivals in mandis.”
The government has taken various steps to control the price of onion in the previous month. The price has doubled in the last 20 days and in some places the retail prices have even touched Rs 100 per kg. Hence now this endeavour is employed in continuation to reduce the prices.
Source: The Economic Times
