)
The agriculture ministry has moved a Cabinet proposal to increase import duty on edible oil to protect the interest of domestic farmers and processors, Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Wednesday.
While the agriculture ministry has proposed increase in import duty of refined edible oil to 12.5 per cent from the existing 10 per cent, the food ministry has recommended the hike should be to 15 per cent. On crude edible oil, both the ministries have proposed import duty should be increased to five per cent from the current 2.5 per cent.
“The agriculture ministry has moved a Cabinet proposal to increase the duties on import of edible oils,” Paswan told reporters here. He said the food ministry has recommended import duty of crude edible oil at five per cent and refined 15 per cent.
Sources said the food ministry favoured maintaining a duty differential between crude and refined edible oils at 10 percentage points, while the agriculture ministry wants it to be at 7.5 percentage points.
In October, Paswan had met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to discuss the issue of raising import duty on crude and refined edible oils to restrict cheap imports.
India’s vegetable oil imports rose 12 per cent to all-time high of 11.82 million tonnes in the 2013-14 marketing year-ended October, on rise in domestic consumption and low rates of cooking oils.
