Luke Mumbai, Sep 13 – The Indian government on Friday said it has raised the basic import duty on crude and refined edible oils by 20 percentage points as the world’s largest edible oil importer seeks to support local oilseed farmers.
The move could raise edible oil prices and reduce demand, thereby reducing foreign purchases of palm oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil.
New Delhi on Friday imposed a 20% basic tariff on crude palm oil, crude soybean oil and crude sunflower oil with effect from September 14, the notice said.
This will effectively increase the total import duty on these three oils from 5.5% to 27.5% as India also levies an agriculture infrastructure and development cess on these oils.
Import of refined palm oil, refined soybean oil and refined sunflower oil will be subject to an import duty of 35.75%, while the previous tariff was 13.75%.
More than 70% of India’s vegetable oil demand is met through imports. The company mainly buys palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while imports soybean oil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
