Onion Exports Prohibited “Till Further Orders”
·
Ban has only Salutary effect since Export Variety is Very
Different Compared to Domestic Variety
·
No Order on Goods in Transit and LC backed Pending Contracts
As per the latest directive, wholesale
traders can stock up to 500 quintals, retail traders can store 100 quintals
As onion prices continue to spiral in
the retail market, the Centre on Sunday, 29 September 2019 banned the export of
all varieties of the bulb with immediate effect and imposed stock limits on
both retail and wholsesale traders.
In a notification, the Director-General
of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said the export policy of onions is amended from “free
to prohibited till further orders”.
Providing
relief
The Consumer Affairs Ministry,
meanwhile, imposed a stock limit of up to 100 quintals on retail traders and
500 quintals on wholesale traders to improve the domestic availability of
onion, hoping this will provide some relief to consumers.
The DGFT took the decision to ban
exports with immediate effect following a letter from Consumer Affairs
Secretary Avinash K Srivastava on Sunday, 29
September 2019.
In the letter, Srivastava said that
increasing the minimum export price (MEP) of onion to $850 per tonne on September 13 had some positive impact, with
exports coming down for a few days. However, exports, particularly to Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh, at prices lower than $850 a tonne,
are still continuing, prompting the Ministry to impose a total ban.
“The ban is expected to improve its
(onion) domestic availability and cool prices,” the Ministry said.
The Ministry also urged State
governments to carry out anti-hoarding operations against unscrupulous traders
by organising raids.
Buffer
stock offloaded
In a related move, the Centre decided to
offload its buffer stock of 50,000 tonnes across the
country. These stocks will be made available to consumers in Delhi, Haryana and
Andhra Pradesh at regulated prices, it said. Consequently, the state-run Mother
Dairy and the cooperatives Nafed and NCCF are selling
onion at a cheaper rate of ₹23.90 per kg in Delhi.
The Centre had, last month, warned of
strict action against hoarding onion amid supply disruption due to floods in
parts of major growing States Maharashtra and Karnataka.
[Notification No. 21/2015-2020 dated
29 September 2019]
Effect
of this Notification:
Export of all varieties of onions, as described above, is prohibited with immediate effect.
Subject: Amendment in Export
policy of Onions
S.O.
(E). In exercise of powers conferred by Section 3 of the Foreign Trade
(Development & Regulation) Act, 1992, as amended, read with paragraph 1.02
and 2.01 of the Foreign Trade Policy, 2015-2020, the Central Government hereby
makes the following amendment with immediate effect
on the export policy of Onions for the item description at Serial Number 51& 52 of Chapter 7 of Schedule 2 of
ITC (HS) classification of Export & Import Items.
"Export policy of onion for the item description at
Serial Number 51& 52 of
Chapter 7 of Schedule 2 of ITC (HS) classification of Export & Import Items is amended from free to prohibited
till further orders".
(Issued
from File No. 01/91/180/922/AMO8/EC (Vol. 4))