NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday said in the Lok Sabha that there was no option but to import edible oil to meet the demand-supply gap in the domestic market.
“It is not that we are very happy to import these items. But the fact is that eating habits are changing, leading to increase in demand.
"Production is also going up, but still there is gap and to meet that we have to import,” agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said during the Question Hour.
Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) questioned the government’s policy and asked what steps have been taken so far to increase production to reduce dependence on imports.
To this, Mr Pawar said: “The government is not a silent spectator. We have taken various steps including financial assistance to states for purchasing seeds and providing subsidy to farmers to increase the production.”
“Production is increasing, but simultaneously consumption is also going up and to meet the gap, we have to import. For the time being, to protect interests of consumers, the government has waived off the import duty to keep the prices under check,” he added.
Oil seeds production has gone up from 243 lakh tonnes in 2004-05 to 297 lakh tonnes last year.
Meanwhile, the government is likely to import skimmed milk powder (SMP) in the coming weeks to contain price rise and shortage of the product in the domestic market. Incidentally, India is the largest producer of milk.
“The National Dairy Development Board has been advised to work out a contingency plan to import SMP under the tariff rate quota (TRQ) if the situation so warrants in the coming weeks,” minister of state for agriculture KV Thomas said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
“Milk production at national level is by and large sufficient to meet the domestic consumption of milk and milk products. In case of acute shortage, import of milk powder at 5% import duty for up to a quantity of 10,000 tonnes under TRQ is permitted to ensure supply of the product,” he said.
Source : The Economic Times