Ajit Pawar requests Centre to scrap 20% export duty on onion
Ajit Pawar urges the central government to remove the 20% export duty on onions to support farmers facing falling prices and losses due to unseasonal rains.
With falling onion prices, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar has written to the central government, requesting that the 20% export duty on onion be scrapped urgently.
Ajit Pawar has written to the minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal, saying, “As the new crop started arriving in Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) in Maharashtra and mainly in the Nashik region, onion prices in the wholesale market fell drastically to ₹2,400 per quintal.”
“If the restrictions on export are not lifted, farmers will start getting lower than the minimum support price (MSP). Already, farmers are affected by unseasonal rain. If they start getting prices lower than the production cost, it will affect them. Onions from Nashik are in great demand for export. If the central government scraps the export duty on onion, it will help farmers get better rates for onions and they will be able to recover their losses,” Ajit Pawar has written.
