The government has hiked the import duty on crude palm oil from 7.5% to 15% and on refined palm oil to 25% from 15%. As per notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, the import duties on other crude edible oils like soya and sunflower have been raised to 17.5% from 12.5%.
The hike in import duty of crude and refined palm oil will help restrict cheaper imports from Malaysia and Indonesia and benefit farmers which are in distress due to fall in prices of oilseeds below Minimum Support Price (MSP) because of bumper production.
Earlier on July 27, an inter-ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had reviewed edible oil availability in the country and discussed ways to deal with rising imports.