The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its consent to defreeze the tariff value on imported RBD palmolein from $484 per tone and align it with the current international prices. CCEA has approved it after the proposal for the same was put forth by Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution.
For about six years the tariff value on imported RBD palmolein has remained unchanged. Due to this the effective rate comes out at about 3.6% on current prices despite import duty on refined oil hovering at 7.5%. Indonesia remains the largest exporter of crude palm oil (CPO) to India and in September 2011, it increased export duty on CPO to 16.5% from 15% earlier and simultaneously reduced export duty on refined palmolein from 15% to 8%, which further affected the domestic refining industry.
During November 2011 to April 2012, about 9.19 lakh tonnes of RBD refined palmolein was imported, an increase of 88.70% compared to 4.87 lakh tonnes during corresponding period in previous year. Besides, imports of CPO increased marginally by 14.80% to 24.93 lakh tonnes compared to 21.72 lakh tonnes.