New Delhi (PTI): India, the second largest vegetable oil buyer in the world, made a record import of over nine lakh tonnes of the commodity in January, taking advantage of a sharp drop in global prices and on anticipation of imposition of import duty.
Import of vegetable oils, including edible and non-edible, rose by 78 per cent to 9,12,342 tonnes in January from 5,13,235 in a year-ago period, Solvent Extractor's Association of India (SEA) said on Thursday.
"The import of vegetable oils during January is reported to be the highest ever since import was put under Open General Licence in 1994," it said in a statement.
Import of edible oil rose by 87 per cent to 8.56 lakh tonnes, while non-edible oil shipments maintained last year's level at 55,652 tonnes, it said.
SEA, however, pointed out that import of huge quantity of refined oils is hitting the domestic refiners leading to lesser capacity utilisation in the country. Refined oil purchases rose by 17 per cent to 1.42 lakh tonnes in the last month, the association said.
It said that global edible prices had fell to bottom levels in November 2008 and then recovered to some extent. With the fall in global oil prices, many importers fear that government may levy heavy duty on oils, which is at zero per cent currently.
Source : The Hindu