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Despite India’s edible oil imports rising, solvent extractors have urged the Government to impose Customs duty on crude palm oil and refined oil imports.
Such a move would help encourage farmers to plant more acreage under rabi oilseeds such as rapeseed/mustard, said B.V. Mehta, Executive Director, Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEAI).
In a recent memorandum, SEAI has urged the Government to levy an import duty of 10 per cent on crude palm oil (CPO) and increase the duty on refined palm oils to 20 per cent.
Currently, there is no duty on CPO imports, while the refined, bleached and de-odourised (RBD) palm oil attracts a duty of 7.5 per cent, Mehta told reporters on the sidelines of Malaysian Palm Oil industry conference on Monday.
“Prices of soyabean have crashed by about 30-35 per cent in the past few months as harvesting has commenced. Such a decline in commodity prices during harvest will discourage farmers to go in for expanding the rabi acreage. So this is the right time for the Government to intervene. The Government should not hesitate to protect the farmers’ interests,” Mehta said.
Such a move would not have any impact on consumers as even the edible oil prices have crashed by about 30 per cent in recent months, Mehta said.
Besides, the strengthening of rupee in recent weeks is aiding importers. The country’s edible oil import is poised to touch a record high of 10 million tonnes for the year-ending October 2012. For the November 2011-September 2012 period, imports have already crossed 9.15 million tonnes, a growth of 18 per cent over previous year.
Edible oil imports bill is estimated at Rs 55,000 crore, he said. For the current year, domestic edible oil requirement is pegged at 16.7 million tonnes and is expected to grow by five per cent to 17.4 mt next year, Mehta said.
The annual growth in India’s edible oil requirement is around eight lakh tonnes. Of the projected imports of 10 million tonnes for the current year, palm oil accounted for three-fourth of imports at 7.5 millon tonnes, while the rest is sunflower and soyabean.
The prospects for rabi oilseed cultivation have improved due to late rains in August and September.
“The rabi sowing is starting soon. If farmers get good price, then acreage will expand in North India,” Mehta said stressing on the need to increase domestic production to curb imports.
> vishwanath.kulkarni@thehindu.co.in
( The correspondent’s visit was sponsored by Malaysian Palm Oil Council. )
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