Central Government on Friday imposed stock holding limit on onion traders to check prices which be effective from today. A notification has been issued in this regard. Stock limit for wholesaler is 25 metric tons and for retailers it is 2 metric tons, said Leena Nandan, Secretary, Consumer Affairs Department.
She further said, Central Govt supplied onions to various States according to their requirements. Till now 35 thousand metric tons of onion were given to states to maintain certain stability in prices
"As a nation, we are a large consumer of onions. Proactive steps have been taken constantly to augment the production of onions. But from the second week of September, there's been a steady increase in the relatively stable prices," she added.
"The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 provides for the circumstances for imposition of stock limit under extraordinary price rise. The All India average retail price variation of onions as of October 21, 2020, when compared to last year is 22.12 per cent (from Rs 45.33 to Rs 55.60 per Kg) and when compared to last 5 years average is 114.96 per cent (from Rs 25.87 to 55.60 per Kg)," the Ministry of Consumer Affairs said in a release.
The stock limit has been imposed on the basis of this rise, it added.
We've taken some steps to counter that. This is the first time when we've created a buffer stock of 1 lakh metric tonnes of onions to take care of rising price by the calibrated release of that stock, Nandan said.