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Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for important measures taken by the Union government for farmers' welfare. 

In a post on X, the agriculture minister said, “The Modi government, committed to the progress of farmers, has reduced the export duty on onion from 40 per cent to 20 per cent. Due to reduction in export duty, onion producing farmers will get good prices for their produce and onion export will also increase.”

He further said, “With this decision of the government, apart from the farmers, other sectors related to onion will also get direct benefit. Thanks to respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this.”

The Centre on Friday cut the duty on onion export to 20 per cent from 40 per cent. The duty cut will be effective from today, i.e, Saturday, the finance ministry had said in a notification. The 40 per cent export duty had been in place since May 4.

The government on Friday also increased custom duty on refined oil from 20 per cent to 32.5 per cent.

Reacting to this, the agriculture minister said, “The Modi government, committed to the development of farmers, has decided to increase the basic duty on refined oil to 32.5 per cent. This decision will increase the demand for mustard, sunflower and groundnut crops for refined oil. Farmers will be able to get better prices for these crops and with the increase in refineries in small and rural areas, employment opportunities will also increase there.”

Shivraj Singh Chouhan also thanked the Prime Minster for removing minimum export duty on Basmati rice.

He said, “The Modi government, sensitive towards farmer welfare, has decided to remove the minimum export duty on Basmati rice. With the removal of export duty, Basmati producing farmers will get fair price for their produce and with the increase in demand, exports will also rise. Thanks to respected Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this important decision.”