Nashik onion traders boycott auctions; I-T continues probe

NASHIK, November 20: If the prime minister can duck for cover under an overcast sky by blaming rising prices on asmani, why can't the 150-od...

NASHIK, November 20: If the prime minister can duck for cover under an overcast sky by blaming rising prices on asmani, why can’t the 150-odd onion traders at Lasalgaon, Manmad and Pimpalgaon also invoke the heavens for help?

Sale and purchase of onions and other vegetables ground to a halt at the wholesale marketyards at all three places in Nashik distrcit today, where four traders have been raided by Income-Tax (I-T) officials since Tuesday. However, in their notice to the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Thursday, the Lasalgaon Merchants’ Association steered clear of mentioning the raids and searches on their premises. Instead, the association’s President Nandkumar Daga said the intermittent drizzle over the last four days has made it impossible for them to transact business and they would have to stay away indefinitely, that is, unless the weather improves.

But what the traders haven’t accounted for is the perverse manner in which the weather can strike back for sometimes, when itrains it simply pours. For the fourth consecutive day today, searches and verification of account books by the I-T sleuths continued, with the traders’ heads swimming with figures that refuse to tally.

Four major onion traders – Pukhraj Jhaverimal Jain (Lasalgaon), Ratan Raka (Lasalgaon and Manmad), Shivcharan Lalwani (Manmad) and Shantilal Bafna (Pimpalgaon-Baswant) – have been raided and verification of their accounts continues.

I-T officials have found cross-entries in their accounts, including the involvement of smaller traders. Hence, the latter are also being questioned. In several deals, I-T sleuths have found, larger traders bought onions from smaller traders and cross-verification of accounts is being undertaken.

When the raids began on Tuesday, traders were panic-stricken and did not venture to the marketyard till around 3 pm. The market remained shut on Wednesday on account of Amavasya. On Thursday, auctions resumed, with about 2,250 quintals being sold for prices ranging between Rs 445 andRs 1,656 per quintal (Rs 1,376 per quintal on an average). The average price has declined over the last fortnight, from Rs 2,500 on November 4 to Rs 1,440 per quintal on November 13 to Rs 1,376 today.

Chairperson of the Lasalgaon APMC, Kalyanrao Patil, told The Indian Express that smaller traders are in a state of panic as the I-T officials have begun summoning them for interrogation over entries in the account books of the four major traders raided.

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The APMC has been making announcements over the public address system, intimating the farmers of the traders’ boycott and asking them not to bring their produce to the marketyard. If the markets remain closed for a while, prices are bound to rise. Apart from the impact on consumers, farmers anxious to sell the newly harvested Kharif crop will also suffer as these onions have a shelf-life of about a month only, Patil explains. The traders’ boycott is however being viewed as a pressure tactic to scare off the I-T officials.

The markets will, however,shut for the weekend as usual and can reopen on Monday at the earliest, provided the traders return.