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The Government has ruled out hiking the import duty on edible oils even as domestic solvent extractors have sought an increase in Customs duty on refined edible oils.
“Currently, the Government has no proposal to increase import duty on edible oils,” said K.V. Thomas, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Crude edible and refined oils currently attract an import duty of 2.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.
Rise in imports
Imports of edible oils have surged recent years, mainly due to the stagnant oilseeds production and increase in consumption.
Separately, the Solvent Extractors Association of India has demanded that the duty on refined oil imports be increased to 12.5 per cent to protect the domestic refiners from the surge in cheaper refined palm oil imports.
“SEAI has strongly once again represented to Government to immediately consider raising import duty on refined oil by five per cent to 12.5 per cent to bail out domestic refiners from disaster,” the association President Vijay Data said in a statement on Tuesday.
In January, the Government had raised the import duty on crude oils to 2.5 per cent, reducing the duty differential between the two oil categories to five per cent.
Duty differential cut
The reduction of duty differential has further led to large-scale import of refined palmolein, leading to utilisation of domestic refining capacity while encouraging the refineries of the exporting countries, mainly in Indonesia and Malaysia.
“The inflation is the lowest in the last three years. Our demand is very much in line with the recommendations made by the Economic Survey and Tariff Commission to have duty difference of 10 per cent,” he said.
Edible oil imports from the start of the oils year in November to January stood at 2.78 million tonnes.
Oilcakes
In the 2011-12, imports were 9.94 mt, up from 7.24 mt in the previous year.
The association also demanded that the Government should extend duty-free import of oilcakes, used as animal feed, beyond March 31, and include rice bran, palm kernel cake and copra cake in the basket of oilcakes.
In August, the Government had allowed duty-free import of oilcakes for six months to augment domestic supply.
About 75,000 tonnes of oilcakes have been imported till February.
vishwanath.kulkarni@thehindu.co.in
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