Recently the Income Tadepartmentnt carried out raids and searches in the offices, godowns and homes of seven onion traders in Nashik district of Maharashtra.
Following the raids, the prices of onions significantly fell down by 35% on Thursday at the country’s largest wholesale onion market at the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC).The average wholesale rate fell down to Rs 9000 per quintal from Rs 14000 per quintal, the maximum rate till now. As per the records, the minimum price for the onions is Rs 500 per quintal and the maximum rate was closed at Rs 1,331 per quintal.
Jaydatta Holkar, chairman, Lasalgaon APMC in his statement to the ET informed that the IT raids had created a panic in the market. He said that out of the seven traders who were raided, two of them had the capacity to buy 30% of the total arrivals in the market. He further added that the raids conducted brought a situation of chaos and confusion in the market, resulting in the drop in the wholesale onion price.
These raids also saw another consequence in the market. After the raids and the drop in prices, the traders were in a confused state not ready to accept the decline in rates and refused to sell their onion at this price. Due to a shortage in supply “The average wholesale onion prices in the domestic markets had increased five times from Rs 450 per quintal on May 31 to Rs 2,450 per quintal on August 10, registering a 20-month high price,” Holkar said.
As per the latest updates, the wholesale onion prices have started declining both in the retail and the wholesale market after the Income Tax department conducted raids. The previous rates recorded shows that in the past two three months in the city’s wholesale market the onion prices had increased from Rs 10 to Rs 30 per kg, while the retail market recorded the prices up to Rs 40-50 per kg in various cities across the country.
Meanwhile, the Union ministry of agriculture has asked the Nashik district administration to submit details pertaining to arrivals and wholesale prices. The Nashik district administration had submitted its last report last week.