Budget 2025: Import duty on refined edible oil should be increased

Budget 2025: Import duty on refined edible oil should be increased, industry organizations appeal to the Finance Minister

Budget 2025 SEA has appealed to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase the import duty on refined edible oil. Industry organizations have sent a budget memorandum to the Finance Minister in this regard. SEA has demanded a ban on duty-free import of finished products. SEA has said that the duty on import of refined palm oil should be increased from the current 12.5 percent to 15 percent.

 New Delhi: Industry body Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) has asked the government to hike duty on import of refined edible oil, ban duty-free import of finished products like soaps and noodles and impose 5 per cent GST on de-oiled rice bran in the upcoming Budget.

In a budget memorandum to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the SEA has stressed the need to enhance fiscal incentives under the National Edible Oil Mission to boost oilseed production and reduce dependence on imports.

25 thousand crore rupees will be needed in the next five years

SEA says that Rs 25,000 crore will be required in the next five years to reduce dependence on edible oil imports to 25-30 per cent by FY 2029-30 under the National Edible Oil Mission.

Increasing import of palm oil is a matter of concern

At present, a provision of Rs 10 thousand crore has been made for this mission and the dependence on edible oil import is 65 percent. Expressing concern over the increasing import of refined palm oil, SEA said that the Indian palm refining industry is facing very low capacity utilization and is turning into a mere packer due to cheap import of refined palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Import duty on palm oil should be increased by 2.5%

In such a situation, the duty on import of refined palm oil should be increased from the current 12.5 percent to 15 percent. At the same time, the FMCG and retail industry has asked to focus on investment in digital infrastructure, skill development and encouraging MSMEs in the upcoming budget to boost consumption.

India imports refined oil from Indonesia and Malaysia

India imports refined palmolein and CPO mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia. Soya oil is mainly imported from Argentina and Brazil and sunflower oil from Russia, Romania, Ukraine and Argentina.

India imports palm oil from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In terms of figures, India imported 6,84,50,97 tonnes of palm oil in the first nine months of the year 2023-2024. Earlier, in 2022-2024, India imported about nine million metric tonnes of palm oil. Dailymintz