Wheat- Edible Oil: No Import Duty on Wheat & Import Duty on Edible Oil
August 14, 2017 at 10:07 AM ,
Rainbow Exports
No import duty on wheat -Ramvilas paswan
Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday said that there is no immediate plan to increase the import duty of wheat from the existing 10 % of the government. Given the record domestic production of 9.07 million tonnes in the crop year 2016-17 (July to June), import duty on 10 percent was imposed on March 28 to curb wheat imports. Earlier, there was no import duty on wheat during the nearly four months. Paswan told reporters on Saturday that there is no immediate plan to increase the import duty on wheat. He said that due to the production of bumper crop in the year 2016-17, there is adequate supply of wheat in the domestic market. According to the industry data, after implementing of the import duty on wheat imports there is not much imported reported. Before this, about 5.5 million tonnes of wheat has been imported on zero customs duty during the financial year end of March.
According to traders, global prices of wheat are high in present time. For example, the cost of Australian wheat imported by India is generally 15 to 20 percent higher due to low crop. Some quantities of wheat are being imported from Ukraine. The government has adequate stock of wheat as it has procured 31.8 million tonnes of wheat in the year 2016-17. At the same time, the prices of wheat in the wholesale market are steady in the range of US$281 to 312 per mt.
Import duty on edible oil 25% fixed by govt.
According to the notification issued on behalf of the government, import duty on refined food palm oil has been increased from 15% to 25%. In addition, the import duty on crude food Palm Oil has been increased from 7.5% to 15%. In addition to palm oil, import duty on soya oil has also been increased. According to the notification, the import duty on crude soybean oil has been increased from 12.5% to 17.5%.
With this decision of the government, the increase in import duty on vegetable oil can benefit farmers and industry but it can affect its consumers more. About 60 percent of total vegetable oil consumed in the country has to be imported from abroad. The country has imported 96,11,958 tonnes of edible oil in the oil year 2016-17 till the end of November 2016, which contains 19,03,056 tonnes of refined oil and 77,08,902 crude edible oil.
The oils imported in the country are the most commonly used by palm oil and soy oil. Out of the total 96,11,958 tonnes of edible oil imported by the end of June, 59,21,563 tonnes of palm oil and 19,80,795 tonnes of soybean oil. The import duty on these two oils has increased, i.e. the prices of these two have increased.
(Source: Market News Channel)
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