KOLKATA: The Centre has allowed edible oils exports in branded consumer packs of upto 5 kg to continue till September 30, 2009. Permission for this was originally valid till May 31, 2009.
The extension in the period for cooking oils exports in permissible volumes was confirmed by the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a recent letter to the director (customs).
With this, the customs department need not be required to seek clarification from
DGFT about the export quota ceiling while clearing the consignment each time, DGFT said in a circular dated May 27, 2009. On the request of exporters, the government has allowed cooking oils exports from November 2008 in branded packs of 5 kgs up to a limit of 10,000 tonne.
The clarification was issued by DGFT to clear the air on any misgivings about the customs department which, according to exporters, has not been clearing export consignments in recent times. They told the DGFT that the customs department has been blocking consignments based on a reasoning that oils exports may have already touched the quota limit of 10,000 tonne by May 31 this year.
The DGFT, while issuing the clarification, has stated that as the monitoring agency for such exports, it can vouch that 5,036 tonne of edible oils were exported from the country in branded consumer packs of 5 kgs till May 14, 2009. "As there is more room for exports, DGFT has extended the period for cooking oils exports for another four months on the industry’s request," said an official of the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA).
Source : The Economic Times