press trust of india
New Delhi, August 29: Blaming hoarders for “abnormal” rise in onion prices, the Centre Tuesday asked states to act against speculators and impose stockholding limit on traders to control rates.
Onions are being sold at `38 per kg in the national capital. The Food Ministry said the Centre has taken a decision to “enable the states/UTs to impose control measures on traders/ dealers of onion to ensure adequate availability of essential commodity at reasonable prices”.
The ministry notified the decision August 25. “States may now impose stock limits on onions and undertake various measures like de-hoarding operations, action against speculators and profiteers,” an official statement said.
This step has been taken due to “abnormal rise in prices of onion in recent weeks particularly from July end of this year onwards,” it added.
The ministry said that the production and supply of onions in the market is better than last year during the same period.
Limits on sugar
India, the world biggest sugar consumer, Tuesday also imposed inventory level limits on sugar mills in an attempt to keep prices under control during the upcoming festive season.
Sugar mills will not be allowed to hold more than 21 percent of their output in stocks by the end of September, and they have to bring down stock level to 8 percent of output by the end of October, Indian food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on twitter.
The measure is aimed at preventing mills from artificially withholding sugar in storage in order to push up prices during the high demand festive season September-October.
