Food oil industry advised not to increase MRP till old stock is exhausted

19-Sep-2024 08:01 PM

New Delhi. The Central Government issued a notification on September 13 and increased the import duty on crude and refined edible oils by 20-20 percent. After this, a meeting of representatives of important associations / organizations of the oil industry was called under the chairmanship of the Union Food Secretary.

In this, the Food Secretary has said that as long as the millers-processors and importers have stock of old imported edible oils,

there should be no increase in its highest retail price (MRP) because it was imported from abroad at a very low level duty.

Before September 13, the basic import duty on crude category edible oils was zero percent and 12.5 percent on refined edible oils.

Representatives of Solvent Extractors Association of India (CIA), Indian Vegetable Oil Producers Association (IVPA) and Soybean Oil Producers Association (SOPA) were present in the meeting with the Food Secretary.

The pricing strategy was discussed in this meeting. These leading edible oil associations were asked to ensure that the price of every edible oil remains at the old level till its old stock is exhausted. For this, these associations should immediately inform their member millers-processors.

Earlier also, after a meeting with the Food Department, the edible oil companies had reduced the MRP on the brands of soybean oil, mustard oil and sunflower oil.

At that time, on one hand, the government had reduced the import duty on edible oils considerably and on the other hand, its international market price had also come down.

The industry has been asked from time to time to keep the price of its branded edible oils in line with the international market price so that the domestic consumers do not have to bear much burden.