| Date: |
09-12-2015 |
| Subject: |
OPDPA urges government to increase import duty on crude palm oil to 45% |
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Oil Palm Developers and Processors Association (OPDPA) the nodal agency for oil palm development in India, has urged the government to increase the import duty on crude palm oil to 45%. The government has recently increased the import duty on crude palm oil to 17.5% from 5%.India's current vegetable oil import bill is to the tune of $10 billion out of which 80% comprises of palm oil and its derivatives.
Palm oil prices are commodity based and are dictated by the largest palm oil producers - Malaysia and Indonesia. Falling global prices have cut into the margins of the farmers as well as the processors making it difficult for the industry to remain viable.
Sanjay Goenka, president, OPDPA said, "The CACP committee has benchmarked a crude palm oil price of $800 (Per MT) as the price of oil at which the Indian farmer makes a decent return. In order to meet the minimum remunerative price to farmers (as given by the CACP guidelines), the import duty on crude palm oil needs to be close to 45%. Only on support of this sort, will farmers be happy and thereby take up further plantation of oil palm which is essential for the socio economic growth of India."
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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