The import of vegetable oils may rise to record 15 million tonnes (MT) in the current marketing year ending October on increasing domestic demand. The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) estimates import of about 1.2-1.3 MT in the remaining three months of the current oil year. The association had earlier estimated imports to rise at around 15.5 MT. The country had imported 14.61 MT in the 2014-15 oil marketing year (November-October).
Imports of vegetable oils (comprising edible and non-edible oils) fell by 24% in July to 1.14 MT due to under utilization of capacity by the domestic refining sector. The import of RBD Palmolein during the first nine months of the current oil year i.e. from November 2015 to July 2016 reached at 19.84 lakh tons from 10.98 lakh tons replacing import of CPO and expected to increase further in the coming months.
With rising imports of refined edible oils, the association had demanded that the difference between the crude and refined edible oils should be doubled to 15% from current 7.5%. At present, import duty on crude edible oil is 12.5% and those on refined edible oil is at 20%.