The Centre on Saturday imposed a 40 per cent duty on onion exports, a move aimed at cooling down the price of the kitchen staple, which is 20 per cent higher as compared to last year. A notification to this effect was issued by the Ministry of Finance, and the 40 per cent export duty was imposed with immediate effect. “This notification shall come into force with immediate effect, and will remain in place till 31 December, 2023,” read the notification. Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said the step has been taken to improve the domestic availability of onions and contain the price rise. The move comes at a time when the onion prices have seen a significant spike in recent months. As per the price data available on the website of the Department of Consumer Affairs, the all-India daily average retail price of onion was recorded at Rs 30.72 per kg on Saturday, which is 20.75% higher as compared to the last year’s rate of Rs 25.44 per kg. A month ago, the all-India daily retail price of onions stood at Rs 27.21 per kg. The increase in domestic prices of onions coincides with a sharp jump in its exports. As per the trade data available on the Department of Commerce portal, onion exports reached 6.38 lakh metric tonnes during April-June 2023, which is 26.51% higher as compared to the 5.04 lakh metric tonnes figure recorded during the corresponding period last year. The increase in onion exports has been even sharper in the month of June, this year. In June, India exported 2.92 lakh metric tonnes of onions, which is 89.56% higher than 1.54 lakh metric tonnes in the same month last year. In the April-June 2023 period, India exported onions to 65 countries, of which a maximum quantity of 1.39 lakh metric tonnes was shipped to Bangladesh. Besides Bangladesh, Malaysia (1.07 lakh metric tonnes), United Arab Emirates (0.90 LMT), Sri Lanka (0.80 LMT), and Nepal (0.39 LMT) are among the top five destinations of Indian onions. The government has been grappling with rising prices of essential items for the past several months. In recent months, prices of vegetables, particularly tomatoes, have seen a sharp spike. The prices of wheat, wheat flour, rice and some pulses have seen inflationary trends. The issue of price rise also figured in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech this year. Discussing inflation, which he mentioned six times, Modi said, “Today, the world is facing the crisis of inflation. Inflation has gripped the economy of the whole world. We also import some goods from around the world. Unfortunately, we have to import at inflated prices. So, this whole world has been gripped by inflation.” He also sought to link inflation with the adverse impacts of Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war. This was after a gap of four years that inflation has figured in the Prime Minister’s Independence Day speech. The last time he spoke about inflation in an I-Day speech was in 2019.
