The Hindu Business Line : `Oilseeds import from Nepal, Lanka negligible'

On Monday, three Lok Sabha MPs — Mr Avtar Singh Bhadana, Mr Aaron Rashid and Dr Rajesh Mishra — raised an un-starred question on whether the "oilseeds industry was on the verge of closure due to the policy of import of oilseeds from Nepal and Sri Lanka".

In posing this question, the MPs were either unaware or poorly briefed on the real issue, which involves import not of oilseeds but vanaspati from Nepal and Sri Lanka. Indeed, both the Vanaspati Manufacturers' Association of India (VMA) and the Indian Vanaspati Producers' Association (IVPA) have been crying hoarse for some time now on the alleged dumping of duty-free vanaspati on account of free trade agreements (FTA) agreed with these countries.

Minister's reply

On his part, the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Kanti Lal Bhuria, chose to be precise and to the point in his reply. According to him, imports of oilseeds from Nepal and Sri Lanka were "negligible" at 4,700 tonnes each in 2003-04 and 2004-05, and 9,900 tonnes in 2005-06. When compared to the country's total oilseeds production, which had risen from 25.18 million tonnes (mt) in 2003-04 to 27.43 mt in 2005-06, these imports are obviously not much to push the industry "on the verge of closure".

What the Minister did not, however, refer to was the quantum of vanspati imports from these two countries. The industry claims that these totalled to 4.4 lakh tonnes (lt) during the last oil year (November-October): 1.7 lt from Sri Lanka, two lt from Nepal (one lt through tariff rate quota and one lt through smuggling) and 0.7 lt from Bhutan.

Having failed to convince either the Commerce or Finance Ministry on the matter, the IVPA and VMA have now taken their case straight to the Congress President and the Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, Ms Sonia Gandhi. Whether the latest round of lobbying pays off remains to be seen.

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