Centre plans to check rising prices of sugar & onion

New Delhi : In a bid to check rising prices of essential food items like sugar and onions, the government has imposed stock limits on sugar mills and allowed state governments to crack down on traders and speculators hoarding onions.

"The stockholding limit for the month of September and October has been capped at 21% and 8% respectively of total sugar available with sugar mills during 2016-17 sugar season. For keeping prices of sugar under control during the festival months of Sept & Oct 2017 stock limits have been imposed on sugar mills," consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan tweeted.

The consumption of sugar and onions is at an all-time high during the two months that are witness to festivals such as Eid-Ul-Adha, Onam, Maha Navami, Dussehra, Karva Chauth, Deepavali, and Chhat Puja among others. The production of sugar in the year 2016-17 was recorded at 203 lakh tonnes as against the consumption of 250 lakh tonnes - a shortfall of 47 lakh tonnes.

 To keep retail prices of onions in check the Centre has also allowed states to impose stock limits on traders and undertake anti-hoarding drives and crackdowns on speculators. An order to this effect was notified on 25 August, the food ministry said in a statement. Data from the agriculture ministry shows that India's onion production rose from 20.9 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 21.6 million tonnes in 2016-17.