On wheat, crude palm oil, and refined vegetable oil India has reduced import duty to control the rising price. Mentioning these facts the Finance Ministry passed an order on Friday.
From 25% to 10% tax has been cut down on wheat import. The center has also slimmed down by 5%, the tariff on import of both crude palm oil and refined edible oils taking them to 7.5% and 15% respectively.
In the world, India is regarded as the second largest wheat producer. As the wheat crop of India has fallen down a lot from the high of 2014-15, so in last ten years, the stockpile has gone down to the lowest floor. To create high records, the local prices have increased.
In 2016, 600,000 tonnes of wheat imported by Indian domestic traders and it is the highest record in past nine years.
25% import levy should be removed to make the imports nominally priced. The traders are expecting this from the finance ministry.
On the import of crude palm oil and refined edible oils, there is a decrease in tax and the Indian Vegetable oil industry is not happy with it. We’re a bit disappointed as we’re on the verge of reaping a new oil seed crop. Atul Chaturvedi who is the President of Solvent Extractors Association of India said that the reduction in the duty will put pressure on local oilseed prices.
Domestic prices of vegetable oil have increased by a fifth in the last 3 months. Chaturvedi added that to support the domestic refining industry, the government should have rather raised the differential between the duties of crude and refined oils.
