Central government withdraws 20% duty on onion export, order will be effective from April 1

The government on Saturday chose to remove the 20 percent export duty on onions. The export duty on onions had been imposed in September 2024. The move will take effect from April 1, 2025. The Revenue Department issued a notice for this on a request from the Department of Consumer Affairs.

To ensure availability at home, exports have been regulated by the government for almost five months from 8 December 2023 until 3 May 2024. These five months have seen policy actions including export duty, minimum export price (MEP), and export prohibition.

However, despite these restrictions, 17.17 lakh tonnes of onions had been exported in 2023-24 and 11.65 lakh tonnes in 2024-25 (up to March 18). The level of export had been 0.72 lakh tonnes in September 2024, which increased to 1.85 lakh tonnes as of January 2025.

The government said, "This decision reflects the government's commitment to maintain a balance between providing remunerative prices to farmers and keeping onion accessible to consumers. The good arrival of the Rabi crop has led to a softening of mandi and retail prices. Although the current mandi prices are above the levels of the same period of previous years, the all-India weighted average modal prices have seen a decline of 39%. Similarly, the all-India average retail prices have declined by 10% in the last one month.

Fall in onion prices

• The all-India average modal prices have declined by 39%.
• Retail onion prices have declined by 10% in the last one month.
• The arrival of onion has increased in major mandis like Lasalgaon and Pimpalgaon.

According to the estimate of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, this year the Rabi production will be 227 lakh metric tonnes, which is 18% more than last year's 192 lakh tonnes. Rabi onion accounts for 70-75% of India's total production. This helps keep prices stable until the Kharif crop arrives in October-November. The Food Ministry said that the projected higher production this year is likely to further reduce market prices in the coming months.