New Delhi: India will allow duty-free imports of limited quantities of crude soybean and sunflower oil for two years, another step in a series of measures taken by the country to pacify rising food prices.
According to a notification by the Finance Ministry, the government will allow the purchase of 20 lakh tonnes each of the two vegetable oils per year in this financial year and the next financial year. Shipments falling under the quota will not require any customs duty or agricultural infrastructure and development tax, it said late Tuesday.
According to a separate notification by the Ministry of Commerce, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade will invite applications for allotting shipment quota for 2022-23 from May 27. India is the largest importer of palm, soybean and sunflower oil in the world.
Bloomberg previously reported that the government is considering cutting the farm cess, an additional levy used by the government to collect funds for agri-infrastructure projects, to 5% on soy and sunflower oil. From.
The move is one of the limited options available to the government to reduce rising vegetable oil prices in the world’s second most populous country. India had earlier abolished base import levies on most cooking oils, including palm oil and soybean oil, and imposed inventory limits to prevent hoarding.
Edible oil prices in India, which depends on imports for 60% of its needs, have risen this year in international markets as well as after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which halted supplies of sunflower oil from the Black Sea region. Had given. Added to this were concerns about production levels in Malaysia, and the recent surprise move temporarily by Indonesia. Sanctions Palm oil exports, before replacing it with domestic sales quotas.
India is reeling under pressure from rising prices of food, fuel and crop nutrients. Wholesale inflation in India, the world’s second-most populous country and Asia’s third-largest economy, rose in April to the highest level in more than three decades.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration announced tax deduction On gasoline, diesel, coking coal and raw materials to make steel during the weekend, and increased its subsidies for crop nutrients to tackle higher prices that are affecting households, farmers and manufacturers. -bloomberg
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