look news india
Mumbai: Due to high import of edible oils in the country, the demand for oilseeds remains weak, causing losses to oilseed farmers. Keeping this fact in mind, the government is considering increasing the import duty on vegetable oil, government sources said.
If the import duty increases, the import of palm oil, soya oil and sunflower oil is likely to decrease. The duty structure on refined oils like palm, sunflower and soyabean is 12.50 percent. While the duty rate on import of raw palm, sunflower and soyabean is zero, but due to 5 percent agriculture and 10 percent social welfare cess, the effective duty rate becomes 5.50 percent.
The government is planning to provide all possible help to oilseed farmers. In the current Kharif season, the sowing of oilseeds has increased slightly compared to last year. The area under cultivation of sunflower, soybean and groundnut has increased.
The country's palm oil imports in July of the current year stood at a one-year high of 10.08 lakh tonnes. The data also showed that the total import of vegetable oil in July of the current year was 18.95 lakh tonnes as against 17.71 lakh tonnes in July last year.
Industry sources had earlier said that soybean oil imports rose 42 per cent to 3.91 lakh tonnes, while sunflower oil imports fell 21 per cent to 3.66 lakh tonnes. The Agriculture Ministry has proposed to the government to increase the import of edible oil.