Nagpur: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday urged the BJP-led Centre to remove the 20 per cent levy on onion exports and provide relief to the grower of the bulbous vegetable.

In a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Pawar highlighted the issues concerning farmers from Nashik district, where onion is grown in large quantities.

“The onions grown here (in Nashik) are available in other states of India and also exported in large quantities. As of today, onions from the summer yield have been exhausted and the fresh crop has reached various (Agriculture Produce) Market Committees in Maharashtra,” Pawar wrote.

Due to the arrival of a large stock of onions, farmers are now in distress as they are forced to sell their produce at a much lower rate since they have yet to receive any minimum support price, said Pawar. They are selling onions at an average of Rs 2,400 per quintal, he said.

Unseasonal rains and changing climate have already caused a huge dent in the earnings of onion farmers, wrote the NCP leader, who is currently in Nagpur for the Winter Session of Maharashtra’s state legislature.

NCP is a partner of the BJP in the ruling Mahayuti coalition in Maharashtra.

If they are further made to receive a rate less than the production cost, the onion farmers will incur a huge loss, said the deputy CM.

Onions from Maharashtra are in great demand abroad, he said. While Maharashtra is the largest onion-producing state in the country, Lasalgaon in the Nashik district has Asia’s largest wholesale market for it.

The Centre has levied a 20 per cent duty on the export of onions due to which the kitchen staple from the state loses its competitiveness in international markets, according to farmers.

The 20 per cent export duty on onions should be removed so that the farmers can heave a sigh of relief and recover some of their losses, Pawar wrote in the letter to Goyal.