The National Board of Revenue (NBR) decision to withdraw 10 percent duty last month made little impact as the item marked 30-35 percent rise in the city markets in the last three weeks.

The price have steadily gone up by Tk 10-12 per kilogram (kg).

One kg of local variety of onion now sells at Tk 30-32 while the imported one at around Tk 28.

The same were Tk 24-26 and Tk 20-22 only a week ago. And about a month ago, they were Tk 18 and Tk 15 respectively.

"Its really very tough to keep pace with the price hike. Every day you will find this or that item has gone pricey," said Golam Kadir, a college teacher, while bargaining with an onion seller at Karwan Bazar.

Wholesalers attributed the price hike to various factors including fall in production in India, increasing demand of Indian onion in Malaysia, Dubai and Sri Lanka, hoarding of the item ahead of Ramadan and very recently snapping road links due to flood.

Besides, the stock of locally produced onion has almost exhausted. The importers at this time of year import onion from India, Pakistan or Turkey.

But most of the importers prefer to import the item from Bihar or Maharashtra of India.

"Import from Turkey or Pakistan takes much time. There is always a fear of incurring loss because a portion of the item gets damaged during import," said Sobhan Mia, a staff of an importer at Karwan Bazar wholesale market.

He informed that Indian consumers federation recently increased the price of onion by around $100 a ton.