Hike in import duty gap between crude, refined palm oil to help local industry, cool prices: Govt

NEW DELHI: The government on Monday said its decision to reduce the agri-cess on crude palm oil will benefit the domestic edible oil refiners and also check prices of cooking oils.
The finance ministry on Saturday cut the agri infra development cess to 5 per cent from 7.5 per cent, in order to bring down the effective duty on crude palm oil import to 5.5 per cent from 8.25 per cent.
The food ministry in a statement said the government has reduced the agri-cess for crude palm oil (CPO) from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent with a view to provide further relief to consumers and keep in check any further rise in the prices of domestic edible oils due to an increase in the rates of edible oils globally.
“After reduction of the agri-cess, the import tax gap between CPO and refined palm oil has increased to 8.25 per cent. The increase in the gap between the CPO and refined palm oil will benefit the domestic refining industry to import Crude Oil for refining,” the ministry added.