Govt to restructure import duty of edible oils

16 Jan 2013 Evaluate

The Centre is planning to impose duty on edible oils to protect the interests of domestic oil industry and oilseeds growers and hike duty on refined palmolein oil from 7.5% to 12.5%. The Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Food Minister KV Thomas met Finance Minister P Chidambaram to discuss the duty structure on edible oils and explore the possibilities of raising the duty to discourage imports and to move a proposal in this regard. The food minister admitted that they met for a quick review on the status of edible oils, wheat exports and the sale of wheat in open market. The minister also added that it had a discussion on these issues.

The Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA), an industry body, has urged the government to raise the import duty on crude palm oil by 10% and refined palmolein oil from the existing 7.5% to 20% to protect the soya bean and mustard seed farmers who are struggling to get remunerative prices due to heavy oil imports. The prices of refined palmolein oil have come down drastically from Rs 58,789 a tonne in Dec 2011 to Rs 48,000 in Dec 2012.

The import of edible oil during 2011-12 (Nov-Oct) soared by 19% to 99.8 lakh tonne compared to 83.7 lakh tonne during the same period last year. However, the domestic availability of edible oils during 2011-12 has been 73.4 lakh tonne as against 79.2 lakh tonne in the last year. The ministers also discussed ways to reduce the country’s import dependence on edible oils. Currently, India imports more than half of its domestic requirement.

In addition to edible oils, they also discussed the sale of wheat to bulk consumers such as flour millers and biscuit makers under OMSS. The Food Ministry is preparing a proposal to cut wheat prices under the scheme to boost sales. On wheat exports, the government may consider allowing further shipments from its stocks. By now, the centre has allowed 4.5 million tonnes of wheat from FCI godowns to clear the surplus stock and ease storage crisis.

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