No Pakistani Onions for India

Pak salt in price wound
- Assassination-hit province bans onion exports to India
OUR BUREAU

Jan. 6: Pakistan’s domestic turmoil fried India’s kitchen budgets on a day it emerged that the food inflation here had shot up close to a year’s high.

Punjab, Pakistan’s most powerful province whose governor Salmaan Taseer was gunned down two days ago, has banned onion exports to India over land routes. It has stopped 300 trucks of onions bound for India on the Wagah border, citing rising domestic prices.

Onion prices increased to Rs 60-65 a kg in major markets in India.

“Retailers have jacked up prices on reports of the ban by Pakistan,” the general secretary of the Tomato and Onion Merchants’ Association in Delhi’s Azadpur Mandi said.

Soon after, the Pakistan government signalled the rollback of a fuel price hike. The desperate measures were concessions to Opposition demands in an attempt to defuse Pakistan’s latest political crisis.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s government is fighting for survival after a coalition partner withdrew in protest against the price rise, leaving the government without a majority. Pressure was piled from another flank by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose party dominates the Punjab government.

New Delhi dubbed Pakistan’s decision “shocking”. Commerce minister Anand Sharma said the issue has been taken up with Islamabad.

“It is shocking and unfortunate that Pakistan has banned onion exports to India via land route,” Sharma said.

“The matter has been discussed with the high commissioner in Islamabad, who has already met the officials concerned there,” the minister added.

The secretaries of the ministries of agriculture, commerce and finance went into a huddle with cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar to find alternative supplies.

“I have concluded a contract with Pakistan via the sea route. Onions will arrive at the Mundra port (in Gujarat),” commerce secretary Rahul Khullar said after the meeting.

A Punjab province spokesperson said the ban on onion exports has been imposed to control prices of the commodity, which had escalated since the sales to India began last month. “After the ban, the prices in domestic markets declined by 45 per cent,” he said.

Pakistan started exporting onions to India for the first time in a decade in mid-December after prices skyrocketed here. Over 300 tonnes of onions were being sent to India every day. Traders said the exports pushed up prices in Pakistan from Rs 45 to Rs 80 a kg.

But the ban without notice, which reflected the pressure on the Pakistan government, angered traders in Punjab. The traders said they had not been given any warning and they had already accepted sizeable orders from Indian importers.

“The government should at least allow the 300 truckloads of onions at the border to be exported,” said Hamid Aziz, an exporter.

When the news of the ban was trickling in, the Indian government was announcing that food inflation has risen to nearly a year’s high of 18.32 per cent on December 25 because of a spurt in vegetables, onion and milk prices.

Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, said he agreed with home minister P. Chidambaram’s statement yesterday that the government did not have full control over prices.

“I mean this is a huge country in terms of population and land area. It is an utter mistake to think that it is fully within the control of the government to move prices of food up and down,” Basu said.


The above is from the Telegraph
Let this be an eye-opener for those who are planning to import gas from third countries to India through Pakistan.
At the drop of a hat and with the least provocation, Pakistan will stop essential supplies to India
It is OK if we make no investments in these projects but if we make investments it would be foolish.
After repeated proof of its enmity towards India we should avoid dealing with that country as far as possible.
It is better if we pay more and get reliable supplies than to depend upon Pakistan
We should be careful of both China and Pakistan.
Pakistan we have so far taken lightly since it is much smaller than us.
But now with its collaboration with China in our border areas, harmful to India's interest, we should be more careful.
China will only understand the language of strength.
No Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai will do with them.
We tried that once in 1962 and saw the results.
Unless we become strong ourself, we are no match more them no matter how much we tout our GDP.
However, with the present lot of corrupt politicians ruling in most states and the centre, I don't see how we can speak with a position against China.