Government cuts basic duty on edible oil; crude palm, soyabean, sunflower oils show declining trend

New Delhi, Nov 5: The prices of edible oil have dropped across the country after the government cut the basic duty on crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil, and crude sunflower oil.

"Edible oil prices have declined quite significantly, ranging from a decline of Rs 20, 18, 10, 7 at many places. The decline is witnessed on palm oil, groundnut, soybean, sunflower & all major oils," news agency ANI quoted Sudhanshu Pandey, secretary of the Department of Food and Public Distribution, as saying.

The Government has cut the basic duty on crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil, and crude sunflower oil from 2.5% to nil in a bid to reign in a continuous rise in the cooking oil prices since past one year, a press release from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution said.

The statement adds that the Agri-cess on these Oils has been brought down from 20% to 7.5% for crude palm oil and 5% for crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil.

"Consequent upon the above reduction, the total duty is 7.5% for crude palm oil and 5% for crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil. The basic duty on RBD Palmolein Oil, Refined Soyabean and Refined Sunflower Oil has been slashed to 17.5% from the current 32.5%. Before reduction, the agricultural infrastructure cess on all forms of Crude Edible Oils was 20%. Post reduction, the effective duty on Crude Palm Oil will be 8.25%, Crude Soyabean Oil and Crude Sunflower Oil will be 5.5% each," the statement adds.

The government has rationalised import duties on palm oil, sunflower oil, and soyabean oil in order to control the prices of the edible oils while suspending futures trading in mustard oil on NCDEX and stock limits have been imposed.

The major industries have cut the price on wholesale prices by Rs 4-7 litre. "Edible prices are higher than year ago period but from October onwards there was a declining trend. The government is taking steps to improve the production of secondary edible oils, especially rice bran oil to reduce the import dependence," the statement claims.