Increase in import duty on edible oils will provide relief to oilseed producers

18-Oct-2024 08:25 PM

Mumbai. The 20 percent increase in basic import duty on crude and refined category edible oils by the Central Government will prove helpful in ensuring better price return to the indigenous oilseed producers.

Due to increase in customs duty, import of foreign edible oils will become expensive and indigenous processors-refiners will get an opportunity to sell edible oil at higher prices and they will not hesitate in giving higher price to the farmers for oilseeds.

India is the largest importer of edible oils in the world. The government intends to control the import of edible oils. For this, on the one hand efforts are being made to make the import of foreign edible oils expensive, while on the other hand efforts are being made to increase the production of oilseeds from indigenous sources by launching National Oilseeds-Oil Mission.

It will be possible to curb the increasing import of edible oils only when the production of oilseeds increases. In the domestic sector, the price of soybean has been running below the minimum support price for a long time, while other consignments have started arriving heavily.

The government feared that the price of soybean may soften further with the arrival of new consignments, so it was deemed necessary to increase the import duty on edible oils.

However, the government has also announced to buy a large quantity of soybean from farmers at the minimum support price (MSP).

The MSP of soybean has been increased from Rs 4600 per quintal last year to Rs 892 per quintal this time. With the increase in domestic production of oilseeds, not only will the dependence on the import of edible oils decrease,

but it will also be possible to increase the export of oil mills, which will increase the earnings of valuable foreign currency.

Farmers will also benefit and crushing-processing mills will get an opportunity to use a larger part of their gross accumulated production capacity.