SEA urges govt to hike refined palm oil import duty to save local refiners

The association has argued that a 15 per cent duty difference would help reduce refined palmolein imports and replace the same with crude palm oil imports

Edible oil industry body SEA has written to the Union food minister Piyush Goyal to increase import duty on refined palm oil to 20 per cent from the current 12.5 per cent in order to protect domestic refiners.
 

The Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) pointed out that the duty difference between crude palm oil (CPO) and refined palm oil is only 7.5 per cent, resulting in higher imports of refined palm oil and lower capacity utilisation of the domestic refining industry.
 

"The low duty difference of 7.5 per cent is a boon for Indonesian and Malaysia refiners. The duty