Payment delays after onion procurement led to protests, dues being cleared: Maharashtra minister

Mumbai, Feb 27 (PTI) Maharashtra Minister Jaykumar Rawal on Friday said that the process to clear pending dues for onion procurement is underway, acknowledging that delays in payments had triggered farmer protests in Nashik earlier this year.

In a written reply at the legislative assembly regarding demands of onion growers, the marketing minister stated that the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) carried out substantial onion procurement between June and August last year.

He said farmers staged a protest outside the NAFED office in Nashik on January 5, and pending dues of around Rs 20 crore relating to the NCCF were outstanding at the time.

The process of disbursing the payments is currently underway at the agency level, he assured.

Rawal said that under the Centre's Price Stabilisation Fund scheme, most farmers were paid within the stipulated period, although some disbursement was delayed due to administrative reasons.

He further pointed out that excess rainfall during the Kharif and late Kharif seasons affected onion cultivation and production in the state, acknowledging that farmers had faced losses due to export restrictions, pest attacks, rising input costs and low market prices.

The minister informed that farmer outfits had launched protests from September 18, 2025, in Daund taluka of Pune district, demanding a remunerative price of Rs 35 per kg for onions.

Regarding export issues, he said that the state government had urged the Centre to remove the 20 per cent export duty on onions, and after sustained follow-up, the Union government scrapped the duty through a notification dated March 22, 2025.

Rawal further said that the state government had written to the Centre seeking an increase in export incentives under the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RODTEP) scheme from 1.9 per cent to 4 per cent to support onion exporters and stabilise prices. PTI MR ARU