Govt imposes 40% duty on onion till Dec 31

New Delhi: Union Ministry of Finance on Saturday announced the imposition of a 40 percent custom duty on onion exports till December 31, 2023.

The hike in export duty comes amid reports that onion prices are likely to rise in September.

The prices of several vegetables including onion, potato, and tomato have skyrocketed in the last few months.

According to the data, the prices of these vegetables increased by 87.1 percent month-on-month in July, compared to 16 percent in June.

The price of onions increased from Rs 22.6 per kg to Rs 28.1 per kg between 1 May to 13 August, an increase of more than 24 percent.

This is not the government’s first attempt at curbing the surge in onion prices. On 11 August, it announced that it would release onions for its buffer stock in targeted regions to stable prices until the new crop arrives in October.

At that time, the consumer affairs ministry had said in a statement that the stock will be released in areas where retail prices are over the all-India average and where the increase in prices is over the threshold level.

Following the soaring prices of tomatoes, the government has also decided to sell tomatoes at Rs 40 per kg from August 20 onwards with an aim to further cool down its prices.

There was a spike in retail inflation also for July, as it had touched 7.44 percent owing to high food prices, which took food inflation to 11.51 percent for the same period.

In a bid to control inflation, the government had in July banned the export of non-basmati white rice and a ban on sugar and wheat exports was already in place at that time.

With inputs from agencies