Vegetable oil imports of India dipped by 13% to 13.03 lakh tonnes in September 2019 compared to last year same month's 14.91 lakh tonnes. This dip is mainly in conjunction with imposition of safeguard duty on Malaysian palm oil, and existing large stock mounts. The government imposed 5% safeguard duty on RBD Palmolein/Palm Oil of Malaysian origin with effect from September 4. In view of this, now the duty difference between crude and refined palm oil has increased to 10% irrespective of any origin.
The edible oil imports down at 12.54 lakh tonnes in September 2019, from last year same month's 14.22 lakh tonnes, while non-edible oil imports dipped to 49,533 tonnes from 69,171 tonnes during the period under review. Though, refined oil (RBD palmolein) imports remained almost steady in September, the quantity of imports from Malaysia reduced to one-third from previous month's import.
However, the overall imports of vegetable oils during November 2018 to September 2019 were up by 3% to 141.7 lakh tonnes, during November 2018 to September 2019, imports of RBD palmolein rose to 26.12 lakh tonnes from 19.98 lakh tonnes in same period of last year, due to lower duty on palmolein imported from Malaysia.
It is reported that many importers/refiners shifted their buying from Malaysia to Indonesia for November-December shipment, amid fears that Government of India might take some action to cut down Malaysian palm oil shipments after the hostile attitude of Malaysia which used strong words in the United Nations on India's decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir.