SEA urges food minister to increase import duty on refined palm oil to protect domestic refiners

25 Nov 2022 Evaluate

In order to protect domestic refiners, edible oil industry body -- the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) has urged the Union food minister Piyush Goyal to increase import duty on refined palm oil to 20% from the current 12.5%. It pointed out that the duty difference between crude palm oil (CPO) and refined palm oil is only 7.5 per cent, resulting in higher imports of refined palm oil and lower capacity utilisation of the domestic refining industry. The low duty difference of 7.5 per cent is a boon for Indonesian and Malaysia refiners. The duty difference between CPO and refined palmolein/palm oil needs to be increased from the current 7.5 per cent to at least 15 per cent. This may be done by increasing RBD Palmolein duty from the current 12.5 per cent to 20 per cent without any change in CPO duty.

The association has argued that a 15 per cent duty difference would help reduce refined palmolein imports and replace the same with crude palm oil imports. He also assured that ‘Overall imports into the country would not be affected and it will have no impact on edible oil inflation. On the contrary, it will help improve capacity utilisation and employment generation in our country’. India imports large quantities of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. Traditionally, the CPO is imported by Indian refiners to cater to the ever-increasing demand for Palmolein in the country. Importing CPO helps in value addition within the country apart from generating employment.

India imported 18,40,540 tonnes of refined palmolein in the 2021-22 marketing year (November-October) as against 6,86,340 tonnes in the previous year. Imports of CPO fell to 59,94,346 tonnes from 74,91,193 tonnes. Sharing the plight, the SEA said that the current import duty difference between crude and refined oil of 7.5 per cent encourages the import of refined palmolein as opposed to the CPO. The import of finished goods is contrary to our national interests and is seriously affecting the capacity utilisation of domestic palm refining industry. The main reason for the rise in refined palmolein imports is the encouragement given by exporting countries (Malaysia and Indonesia) to their industry.

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