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Condemning the Center’s plan to procure two lakh metric tonnes of onions from farmers in Maharashtra at ₹2,410 per quintal through the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said the Union Government must pay ₹4,000 per quintal of onion. The Centre announced the purchase decision last week.
Mr Pawar lambasted the Center’s decision to impose a 40% duty on onion export and called it “unacceptable” and said “it will hurt farmers.”
Meanwhile, leaders of the NCP on Wednesday protested on the Nashik-Pune Highway against the Center’s decision to impose a 40% tax on onion exports. Farmers and traders along with NCP leaders are demanding that the Center roll back the tax.
Shinde all praise
However, Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Eknath Shinde lauded the Center’s decision and said, “Sharad Pawar is a big leader. He was the Union Agriculture Minister for 10 years. Even then there were crises involving onions, but such a relief was never provided.”
Last week, there was a massive protest in all of the Agricultural Produce Market Committees of Maharashtra. The president of Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, Raju Shetti also criticised the Center’s decision. He said, “The procurement of two lakh metric tonnes of onions is not going to solve the problem. The question is why have a 40% duty on onion export? We demand that the government roll back the 40% duty on onion export”.
Mr Shetti added, “The Centre took a mindless decision by allowing the import of tomatoes from Nepal last month. It led to a crash in tomato prices resulting in farmers failing to recover even investment expenditure. Today, it is the turn of onions. The surplus stock of onions due to higher export duty will lead to a sharp decline in prices. Farmers will have to bear the financial loss”.
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