The government said that on Friday, India, the world’s largest importer of vegetable oils, cut the basic import duty on crude edible oils in half to 10% in an effort to lower food costs and support the domestic refining sector. Crude palm oil, crude soy oil, and crude sunflower oil are all subject to customs duties.
Since the three oils are also subject to India’s Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess and Social Welfare Surcharge, the overall import tax on them would be reduced from 27.5% to 16.5%.
The tariff decrease would result in lower local pricing for both consumers and vegetable oil refiners, according to B.V. Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA). The import tax on refined palm oil, refined soy oil, and refined sunflower oil, which is now 35.75%, was left unchanged by the government.
According to Mehta, the 19.25% import tariff difference between refined and crude edible oils would encourage importers to bring in crude edible oils rather than refined ones, which will support the regional refining sector. India imports more than 70% of the vegetable oil it needs. It imports soy oil and mainly purchases palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
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