The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the hike inimport duty on refined edible oil imports to 10 per cent from 7.5 per cent at present, Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tiwari, said here on Thursday.
The hike will expand the duty differential between imports of crude oil and refined oils to 7.5 per cent from the present five per cent, thereby, protecting domestic refiners and farmers.
Currently, the import duty on crude oil is 2.5 per cent, while the refined edible oils attract a duty of 7.5 per cent.
The lower duty differential of five per cent had led to higher imports of refined oils, leading to under utilisation of domestic refining capacity.
In the oil year ending October 2013, edible oil imports stood at 10.38 million tonnes.
During November, the imports of refined oils were up 173 per cent at 2.08 lakh tonnes against 76,519 tonnes in the corresponding last year.
Total edible oil imports during November were up 37 per cent at 9.27 lakh tonnes against 6.76 lakh tonnes last year.