The Govt lifts import duty on sunflower oil and soybean curbs sugar exports to cool prices

By Our Special Correspondent

Within A fortnight of banning wheat exports and continuing with its fiscal policy measures to douse domestic inflation, the government Tuesday announced effective June 1 and allowed duty-free import of 20 lakh metric tons of crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil a year for two financial years (2022-23 and 2023-24).

At the moment, there is a 5% agricultural infrastructure and development cess for importing these items. The latest move could bring relief to consumers as it will cool cooking oil prices. The government has already scrapped base customs duty on almost all edible oils, including palm oil and soybean oil, and imposed inventory limits to curtail hoarding.

The decision comes in the backdrop of oil prices jumping as much as 17% last month. The overall retail inflation in April stood at a high 7.8%. India is one of the top importers of vegetable oil in the world. Prices of edible oils skyrocketed after the Ukraine-Russia war started and Indonesia put a ban on palm oil exports.

To maintain “domestic availability and price stability of sugar”, the government said it would allow exports of up to 100 lakh (10 million) MTs of exports during the current sugar season (October 2021 to September 2022).

Moving raw, refined and white sugar to the restricted list from free for export purposes, a notification by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said, “With effect from 1 June 2022 up to 31 October 2022 or until further orders, whichever is earlier, export of sugar is allowed only with specific permission from Directorate of Sugar, Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. Detailed procedure for issue of necessary permissions for export of sugar will be notified separately by the Department of Food and Public Distribution.”