Won’t scrap 40% export duty, end strike now: Government to onion traders

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday turned down demands of onion traders from Nasik to scrap 40% export duty and stop two government cooperatives — NCCF and Nafed — from selling onions at mandis. The government also asked the traders to immediately call off their strike.
However, the government told the traders that their demand will be taken up at an inter-ministerial committee for consideration.
Representatives of onion traders met food and consumer affairs minister Piyush Goyal and top officials in Delhi on Friday. “The decision was written on the wall as they had rejected our demand at a meeting held early this week,” said a trader.
A source said that in response to the traders’ demand that NCCF and Nafed stop releasing onion from their stocks to mandis, the government said that had there been no such intervention, the price of onions would have touched Rs 50 per kg by now. They were also informed that the government cooperatives were selling onions at mandis in other states and outside Nasik.