NEW DELHI: The government has cut the basic customs duty on refined palm oil to 12.5% from 17.5% to boost supply and also to cool off retail price of cooking oil.
According to the notification issued on Monday, the centre “seeks to reduce BCD on refined palm oil and its fractions from 17.5% to 12.5% till March 31, 2022. The order comes into effect from Tuesday.
This comes a day after government allowing traders to import refined palm oil without licence for one more year till December 2022.
Also the market regulator SEBI banned launch of new derivative contracts of crude palm oil along with few other agricultural commodities to keep inflation in check.
Experts claim that with reduction in the duty, the effective levy on both refined palm oil and pamoline will come down to 13.75%, including social welfare cess, from 19.25%.
On Monday, the average retail prices of groundnut oil stood at Rs 181.48 per kg, mustard oil at Rs 187.43 per kg, vanaspati at Rs 138.5 per kg, soyabean oil at Rs 150.78 per kg, sunflower oil at Rs 163.18 per kg and palm oil at Rs 129.94 per kg, as per the data available with the consumer affairs ministry.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha, “We will attend to the problem of edible oil price and also some of the essential edible items.”
The government has cut import duties on both refined and crude edible oils several times this year. The last reduction on import duty was done by the government on October 14.