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High-transfat refined vegetable oils being imported “unchecked” through the land border with Bangladesh is seen creating health hazards in India and posing potential loss to domestic refiners.
After the Centre took prohibitory measures to curb cheap imports of refined vegetable oils from neighbouring countries by misusing SAFTA, there was a spurt in imports of refined veg oils — soybean oil and palm oil — by road. This, according to experts, encouraged adulteration of veg oils in the domestic market.
According to an estimate by the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), every day, about 800-1,000 tonnes of RBD palmolein and refined soyabean oils are imported from Bangladesh in tanker lorries and in packaged form through the land borders of West Bengal and Assam.
“This cargo is being released by Customs on the basis of bond on the same day of arrival without being tested by the Port Health Officer (PHO). Edible oil tankers from Bangladesh are having high transfat of 4 to 5 per cent and being used for adulteration in the local markets. There is no checks of selling and marketing such imported refined oils in India and they could be serious hazardous to health too,” Atul Chaturvedi, President, SEA, stated in a letter to the secretaries of the Central Departments of Revenue, Commerce and Food and Public Distribution.
SEA has appealed to the Centre to check and regulate such imports from Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries under SAFTA by road. “Therefore request you to direct Customs and FSSAI Authorities at these land ports to take appropriate action to stop the import,” said Chaturvedi in the letter.
Districts with land borders on the opposite side from where the imports enter India include 24 Parganas, Mundu-Myanmar, Jalpaiguri, Maldaha, West Dinajpur, Nadia, Gaur, Shillong and Agartala, among others.
Earlier, the trade body had raised an alarm on duty-free import of veg oils through SAARC nations. This was at a time when the Centre had imposed heavy duties on imported edible oils to protect the interests of local refiners and farmers.
The importers exploited the SAFTA agreement, which allows duty-free imports of goods from the signatory countries on two grounds — either the commodity is native to the country or has 30 per cent value-addition.
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