Amid rising prices, Centre revises onion stock holding limit for retailers, wholesalers

Amid concerns over rising prices of onions, the government on Tuesday revised the permissible stock limits for the commodity with immediate effect.

Now wholesalers and retailers can keep onions up to 25MT and 5MT respectively, Union Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced on Twitter. 

The importers of onions are exempted from the stock limits, he said. 

The minister said the decision was taken in order to augment the availability of onion in the open market.

The vegetable has been selling for Rs 80-100 per kg in retail markets in Delhi-NCR and has even crossed the century-mark in some regions.

Paswan had last week said that the government was unable to bring down the prices as it was not in its hands. 

Responding to a question on when the onion prices would come down, Paswan said "it's not in our hands." However, he had added that the government is taking every step possible to contain the price rise.

The government has announced that will import 11,000 Metric Tons (MT) of onion from Turkey in addition to 6,090 MT from Egypt. The supply from Egypt will arrive in India in the second week of December while consignment from Turkey will reach the Indian shores in January 2020.

Last month, the Union Cabinet had approved importing 1.2 lakh tonnes of onion to improve the domestic supply. Exports have already banned and a limit has been imposed on stock-holding for wholesalers and retailers for an indefinite period.