Futures trading in mustard oil on NCDEX has been suspended and stock limits on oils and oilseeds have been imposed
In a bid to reign in the continuous rise in the cooking oil prices since the past one year, the basic duty on crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil has been cut from 2.5 per cent to nil by the Government of India. The agri-cess on these oils has been brought down from 20 per cent to 7.5 per cent for crude palm oil and 5 per cent for crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil.
Consequent to the above reduction, the total duty is now 7.5 per cent for crude palm oil and 5 per cent for crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil. The basic duty on RBD palmolein oil has been slashed to 12.5 per cent from 17.5 per cent recently. The basic duty on refined soyabean and refined sunflower oil has been slashed to 17.5 per cent from the current 32.5 per cent. Before reduction, the agricultural infrastructure cess on all forms of crude edible oils was 20 per cent. Post reduction, the effective duty on crude palm oil will be 8.25 per cent, crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil will be 5.5 per cent each.
Apart from rationalising import duties on palm oil, sunflower oil and soyabean oil, futures trading in mustard oil on NCDEX has been suspended and stock limits on oils and oilseeds have been imposed.
Despite international commodity prices being high, interventions made by Central Government along with State Governments’ pro-active involvement have led to a reduction in prices of edible oils. The department is regularly interacting with the oil industry associations and leading market players and has convinced them to reduce the MRP which will translate to passing on the benefit of duty reduction to end consumers. As per the trend from 167 price collection centres, edible oil prices have declined quite significantly in the range of Rs 5 and 20 per kg in the major retail markets across the country.
Major edible Oil players including Adani Willmar and Ruchi Industries have cut prices by Rs 15 -20 per litre. The other players that have reduced the prices of edible oils are Gemini Edibles & Fats India, Hyderabad, Modi Naturals, Delhi, Gokul Re-foils and Solvent, Vijay Solvex, Gokul Agro Resources and NK. Proteins.
The government has recently started to control the prices of oil concerning soya meal. Stock limit on soya meal which is a major source of protein and constitutes almost 30 per cent of livestock feed has been imposed that will be effective till June 2022 by including it in the Schedule to Essential Commodities Act, 1955. This will cool down the prices and improve supply.
