Trade ministry recommends raising tax on imports of refined palm oil from Malaysia

27 Aug 2019 Evaluate

In order to curb cheaper purchases of refined palm oil, the trade ministry of India has recommended raising the tax on imports of refined palm oil from Malaysia to 50% from 45%. The suggestion of raising the import tax is for six months.

Presently, the country imposes a 40% import tax on crude palm oil (CPO) and 50% on refined palm oils. But shipments of refined palm oils from Malaysia have since January been taxed at 45%, under an agreement with Malaysia.

The change in duty structure reduced the effective duty difference between CPO and refined palm oil for Indian refiners to 5.5% from 11% for shipments from Malaysia, making overseas buying of refined palm more lucrative than CPO.

That led to a 727% surge in Malaysia's refined palm exports to India. According to data compiled by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), in the first half of 2019, exports to India stood at 1.57 million tonnes compared with the same period a year before.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×