SEA asks govt to raise difference between CPO, refined palmolein import duty
This story was originally published at 10:46 IST on 26 April 2025
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MUMBAI – The Solvent Extractors' Association of India has appealed to the government to increase the import duty difference between crude palm oil and refined palmolein or palm oil to protect the domestic palm oil refining industry.
India is one of the world's largest importers of palm oil, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia. It is imported by Indian refiners who have invested in port-based refining capacity.
"The current import duty difference between crude and refined oil of 7.5% encourages import of refined palmolein into our country as opposed to crude palm oil," Sanjeev Asthana, president of the association, pointed out in a memorandum to Consumers Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Pralhad Joshi.
Palmolein imports have increased because of the encouragement given by exporting countries Malaysia and Indonesia to their industries, Asthana said. As a result, India's palm oil industry is suffering from low capacity utilisation, compromising their investment, he added.
"The (import) duty difference between crude palm oil and refined palmolein or palm oil needs to be increased from the current 7.5% to at least 15%. This may be done by increasing the duty on refined bleached and deodarised palmolein from the current level of 32.5% to 40% or reduce duty on crude palm oil by 7.5% to 12.5%," Asthana said.
"We feel (a) 15% duty difference would help reduce palmolein imports and replace the same with crude palm oil imports. Overall imports into the country would not be affected and it will have no impact on edible oil inflation. On the contrary, it will help improve capacity utilisation and employment generation in our country," he said. End
Reported by Abhijit Doshi
Edited by Nishant Maher
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