'Import quotas must to protect domestic Vanaspathi industry'

The Union government should introduce import quotas on Vanaspathi, besides increasing import duty to 100 per cent from the present 30 per cent to protect the domestic industry, according to Sandeep B Bajoria, president of the Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade.

Vanaspathi constitutes over seven per cent of edible oil consumption in the country.

Bajoria was speaking at the 42nd national 'Convention on Oil seeds, Oil trade and Industry' here on Sunday.

Earlier, addressing the convention, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said that the major obstacle in oil seed production in the state, as well as in the country, was the poor yield levels due to drought and substandard quality of seeds.

Terming the dependence on imports to meet the edible oil needs of the country as unfortunate, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy called upon the industry, research bodies and farmers to come together to change the present scenario.

With the edible oil demand estimated to be at 120 lakh tonnes a year and the domestic production about 75 lakh tonnes, over 45 to 50 lakh tonnes of various edible oils are being imported into the country annually.

"Our yield levels have been only one third of that of the world average. That is mainly due to the rain-fed conditions in which the crops are grown which are more prone to long dry spells of one month or over. This is exactly where my government wants to bring in a change by creating irrigation potential in over 65 lakh acres over a period of five years from now," Reddy said, adding that the trade and industry should come forward to help farmers overcome other problems.

Expressing hope that the country, being an agrarian economy with favourable agro-climatic conditions, should be in a position to export edible oils to other countries in the near future.

While assuring the local oil trade and industry of all help from the government, Reddy reminded them of the complaints from the commercial taxes department of the tendency of tax evasion in the oil industry.