Inter Ministerial Committee Fixes Onion MEP to Promote Export
Minimum Export Price (MEP) of Onion is fixed by an
Inter-ministerial Committee (IMC), in terms of the decision of the Cabinet
Committee on Prices held on 10th June, 2000. The IMC is chaired by Joint
Secretary, Department of Commerce. Managing Director- NAFED, Joint
Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Cooperation and Economic Advisor,
Department of Consumer Affairs are its members. This committee takes stock of
the arrival of onion and modal prices prevailing in the important production
and consumption centres and decides the MEP of onion accordingly
In the recent months starting from July, 2013,
there was a sudden spike in the prices of Onions all across the Country. The
high prices continued through the months of August, September, October and
November on account of various issues like untimely rains, supply constraints,
less than expected production, initial speculative hoarding activities by
unscrupulous traders, overall food inflation etc.
The Govt. acted swiftly by imposing an MEP of USD
650 PMT on 14th August, 2013 followed by further hikes as under:
USD 900 PMT on 19th September, 2013
USD 1150 PMT on 1st November, 2013
to
augment domestic supplies and prevent any further rise in prices of onions.
However, the Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC),
after factoring in improvement in the arrivals in the latter half of November
and 1st Week of December, 2013, decided to reduce the MEP to 800 USD
PMT in its meeting held on 10th December, 2013.
Now that the arrivals have shown marked improvement
and on the expectation of better crop prospects and the sharp decline in the
wholesale modal prices in production mandis of
Maharashtra and other places, it has now been decided by the Government to
slash the MEP to USD 350 PMT with immediate effect.
This will not only help in arresting the sharp
decline in prices realised by the farmers but would also make Indian export of
onions more competitive in the international markets and thereby help in
stabilizing the onion prices in the domestic markets by balancing the interests
of both farmers and consumers.
[Source: PIB (MoC&I]
Press Release dated 19th December 2013]