Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. There is good news for the common man as the edible oil prices are likely to fall in coming days. The union government has reduced the import duty on refined soybean and sunflower oil from 17.5 percent to 12.5 percent. In a notification issued by the Finance Ministry on Thursday, it has been said that this step has been taken to increase domestic availability and control prices. India is dependent on imports to meet its demand-supply gap in edible oils. Notably, India meets 60 percent of its edible oil requirement through imports as our country usually imports 'crude' soybean and sunflower oil instead of refined. Despite this, the government has reduced the import duty on refined soybean and sunflower oil. With this reduction, the effective duty on refined edible oils has gone up to 13.7 per cent. It also includes social welfare cess. The effective duty on all major crude edible oils is 5.5 per cent.

Govt wants edible oils under control

Commenting on the development, BV Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), said the move may have some temporary impact on market sentiment, but it will not increase imports. Mehta said in the statement, 'Generally the government wants to keep the prices of edible oils under control. Import of refined soybean and sunflower oil is not economically viable despite the low duty differential between crude and refined soybean and sunflower oils. The move will have a temporary impact on market sentiment. Right now there is no import of refined soybean and sunflower oil. According to SEA, sowing has been delayed due to a week's delay in the onset of monsoon in Kerala. Mehta said that the Meteorological Department has predicted almost normal monsoon. However, El Nino has not been completely ruled out and could lead to setbacks in the prospects of a normal monsoon, affecting the domestic availability of vegetable oils for the kharif crop and the next oil year 2023-24.