The Hindu Business Line : `Create oilseeds development fund from customs collections'

Agri-Biz & Commodities - Oilseeds & Edible Oil
Industry & Economy - Excise and Customs

`Create oilseeds development fund from customs collections'

Our Bureau

New Delhi , March 12

THE Central Organisation for Oil Industry & Trade (COOIT) has sought the creation of an Oilseeds and Oil Development Fund out of the Centre's customs revenue collections from edible oil imports.

"The Centre earns around Rs 7,000 crore annually from customs duty imposed on edible oil imports. Currently, all this money goes to the Consolidated Fund of India for meeting regular Government expenditures. We would like at least a portion of these revenues, say about a third, to be specifically earmarked towards a Fund that would finance the development of the sector," the COOIT President, Mr Sandeep B. Bajoria, told newspersons here today.

He said that alternatively, the Centre could think in terms of imposing a separate cess on imported edible oils, the proceeds from which can be used to finance the proposed Fund. "This is similar to the cess on petrol and diesel which is used for financing highway development," Mr Bajoria said.

Pointing out that average productivity of oilseeds in the country had gone up marginally from 570 kg per hectare in 1986 to 1,000 kg now, Mr Bajoria noted that "our existing yields are only half of the world's average and one-third of the world's best".

There was a need to draw a road map for achieving at least a 20 per cent step up in oilseeds production through development of suitable varieties for both irrigated and non-irrigated conditions and creation of the proposed Fund would facilitate this process.

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`Create oilseeds development fund from customs collections'