Onion Prices Flying High, Government Brings In Buffer Stock To Balance (Image: media archives)
Onion prices have gone up with the government taking up measures for containing it. The sale of buffer stock of onions has been stepped up in order to avoid big-scale economic problems. In the past year, the retail price of onions has gone up by 57 percent, touching 47 percent per kg. The causes for this cannot be pointed to a single one, says the Business Today.
There is a tight supply condition for onions in the market along with the delayed sowing of Kharif onions. On account of the tight situation, the government has decided to pool in the buffer onions, so as to provide respite to the people.
The government data says that onion prices which were at Rs. 30 per kg a year ago, at Delhi, has now gone up to Rs. 40 per kg now (as on Friday). Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh said that, “we have been offloading buffer onions since mid-August and we are stepping up the retail sale in order to check further rise in prices and provide relief to the consumers.”
The Congress Chief, Mallikarjun Kharge, in a tweet has expressed his concerns on this rising onion prices, saying that the ruling government has always handled inflation by mocking people with rhetoric and now the “people of 5 states (where elections have been scheduled) will tell the secret to the BJP by defeating them”.
As per the ministry, the buffer stock is being released in the states where the onion prices have gone high, the release is both in the retail and wholesale sectors. From mid-month of August, releasing of almost 1.7 lakh tonne buffer has been undertaken in several places in 22 states. At Delhi, buffer onion is offloaded at reduced rates and at retail markets it is sold at a low of Rs.25 per kg through the National Cooperative Consumers” Federation of India (NCCF) and the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).
If it were a normal Kharif cycle, the onions would already be available in the markets. The delay has been mainly due to the conditions of the weather, which has led to the late arrival of onion. An official said that, this time, the government has become proactive and has doubled its buffer stock for the ongoing year, so as to keep a control on the soaring prices and stability of supply within the country.
For the fiscal year, 2023-24, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has kept a buffer of five lakh tonnes through the NCCF and the NAFED. An additional provision for 2 lakh tonnes, in the short term have also been made.
