Palm Oil Import Duty Stands At 45Pc: FM

New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has cleared up the basic customs duty (BCD) on crude palm oil and crude oil stands at 45 per cent and not 40 per cent, as was notified earlier on July 23. In a corrigendum issued here on July 25, the Revenue Department has informed that the 40 per cent rate notified on July 23 should be read as 45 per cent. Prior to July 23, the BCD on CPO was 50 per cent, while being 57.5 per cent in the case of RBD (refined, bleached, de-odourised) palm oil and olein. The Committee on Edible Oils had suggested a BCD differential of 7.5 percentage points between crude and refined oils. If the CPO duty had been set at 40 per cent, it would have translated into a differential of 12.5 percentage points over RBD palmolein. Now that the Ministry has clarified the duty at 45 per cent, it restores the recommended 7.5 percentage points differential. Meanwhile, the landed price (cost & freight, Mumbai) of CPO has gone up from $805 to $815 per tonne since the latest round of duty reduction effected on July 23. Thus, the duty cut, rather than making imported oil cheaper to Indian consumers, has only led to a further firming up of international prices.