Govt bans all varieties of onion export with immediate effect to curb price rise

New Delhi, Sep 29: With the price of onion rising almost 30 per cent, to touch the the highest since September 2015, the government on Sunday banned export all varieties of the bulb vegetable from the country with immediate effect.

In a notification issued, "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."

"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.''

The notification further stated that export of all varieties of onions, is prohibited with immediate effect.

Last week's measures to curb prices, such as the levy of minimum export price (MEP) and permission for duty-free import failed to curb the price rise.

Because of widespread heavy rains in most onion growing regions of the country during the current monsoon season, there was an acute of onions in the market.

Retail onion prices have skyrocketed to Rs 60-80 per kg in Delhi and some other parts of the country.