Govt. meets to discuss oil seed mission, may hike import duty on edible oil soon

The central government is considering raising import duty gradually in a bid to incentivize farmers to grow more oilseeds locally. As it is reported by ET Now news that senior officials from Agricultural and food ministry met in last week of November to discuss on oilseed mission. 

As per the last meeting, the government is considering to hike import duty on Soyabean, Sunflower, and Rapeseed oil by 5 per cent to use these profits to invest in domestic production of oilseeds. 

"We have been meeting regarding this, and considering a proposal to increase some tax on edible oil. The tax hike could be beneficial in collecting funds for domestic production of edible oil in the country," said a government source on conditions of anonymity to ET Now.

The government has identified parts of land in North India, specifically Punjab and Haryana to grow domestic oilseeds. These discussions on growing local oilseeds are a part of government's initiative towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat to reduce India's dependence on imports 

India currently levies 37.5 per cent and 45 per cent import tax respectively on crude and refined palm oil. Imports of crude soybean oil, crude sunflower oil and rapeseed oil attract 35 per cent import duty.

India annually imports around 15 million tonnes of edible oils, including more than 9 million tonnes of palm oil and about 2.5 million tonnes each of soy oil and sunflower oil.