By IANS,
New Delhi : There is enough onion stock available and production of the crop has also not reduced — but its prices are still making people shed tears. Why?
Onion prices in Delhi’s retail markets are around Rs.30 a kg and even higher in other major Indian cities.
“This may be because of speculation,” Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma told the Lok Sabha Monday.
“Speculation of low production” following delayed monsoon and then heavy rains this year had led to fears that agricultural produce would be low, he said.
“The sowing of onion crop was also delayed in Maharshtra,” Sharma said in reply to a question by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi.
“There is no reduction in onion production, there is no reduction in storage quantity. We have enough,” he said.
The minister denied that export of onion was responsible for inflation and said the government had raised the benchmark price for selling onion abroad to $450 a tonne in December.
The move, he said, was aimed at raising onion supply locally and preventing traders from exporting cheaper varieties of the crop.
Not satisfied with the reply, Joshi said it indicated that the government was unable to rein in the prices.
“Ask the agriculture ministry or consumer affairs ministry,” Sharma politely replied.