No immediate plans to hike import duty on edible oils at the moment: Thomas

07 Dec 2012 Evaluate

The government has no instant plans to hike import duty on edible oils at the moment. India, the world’s largest edible oil importer, has zero import tariff on crude oil and 7.5% on refined oil. The industry has expressed concern over cheap imports of vegetable oil affecting oilseeds farmers.

K V Thomas, Food Minister said that he don’t have any proposal as of now to increase import duty on edible oil. Earlier, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) had urged the government to impose 10% import duty on crude palm oil and 20% on RBD palmolein. The association had said that import of vegetable oil at lower price has hit domestic oilseeds prices. By adding further it said, oil palm trees are also being uprooted due to lower realization on fresh fruit bunches of oil palm tree caused due to cheaper imported CPO.

The country’s total vegetable oil imports crossed a record 10 million tonnes in 2011-12 on account of weak global prices following huge surplus stocks in Malaysia and Indonesia. The average cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price of crude plam oil has come down by 33% to Rs 1,184 per tonne, while refine palm to $ 840 a tonne in last 6 months.

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