The government has cut import duty on palm oil from 37.5 percent to 27.5 percent to control the rise in edible oil prices locally.

India imports roughly 70 percent of its edible oil requirement, and 40 percent of that is palm oil.

“I see no reason why soybean and sunflower have been left untouched,” Atul Chaturvedi, Director of Adani Wilmar said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

“All oils are interchangeable and our fear is that palm oil imports will go up and soybean and sunflower imports might actually come down. So that looks to be a distinct possibility,” he said.

“As an association what we were telling the government is that this is the time when your soybean is being marketed and your sowing for rabi is also very much on the cards. But, having said that the prices have probably risen far too much and most of the rabi sowing operation is already over and the only thing we would request the government is whatever drop they have done as far as duty is concerned in CPO (crude palm oil) they should reverse back to normal when the mustard started getting marketed sometime in March or early April. This time mustard crops looks to be rebounding with a vengeance,” he said.

On prices of palm oil, Chaturvedi said, “International prices have started looking a lot wobbly in the last few days. Even palm has started looking down and coupled with that with the duty intervention from the government there is no reason to feel that the prices will again run away.”

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(Edited by : Santosh Nair)

First Published:Nov 27, 2020 3:32 PM IST