The Confederation of All India Traders (CAT) and All India Edible Oil Trade Federation (ABKVM) have welcomed the reduction in customs duty on import of certain cooking oils.
CAT and ABKVM, in a joint statement issued on Wednesday, appreciated the decision of the Central Government to remove customs duty on import of raw soybean and raw sunflower. CAT's National General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal and ABKVM President Shankar Thakkar said that this decision of the Government of India is a meaningful and concerted effort to curb inflation and provide relief to the people from inflation. Inflation is at an all-time high in the country. In such a situation, removal of import duty on crude oil and ban on export of sugar will definitely bring down inflation, which will benefit the common man.
Both the business leaders said that as part of the decision to remove the import duty on crude oil, the government has ensured that persons desirous of importing will have to obtain a TRQ licence. They will be allowed to import in proportion to their annual consumption, which in many respects seems reasonable. Along with this, the government should also ensure that the benefit of this step goes to the consumers. He said that because it is also necessary that the importers do not keep this advantage with themselves.
Khandelwal and Thakkar said that another landmark decision of the government is to ban the export of sugar, which is a proper and practical step. He said that after Brazil, India is the largest exporter of sugar in the world. The government has imposed restrictions on the export of sugar to control domestic demand and prices in the country, which is in the larger interest of the people. In such a situation, we appreciate these two important steps of the government to deal with inflation.
It is noteworthy that the government has exempted the import of crude soybean and crude sunflower oils from customs duty and Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess. Prior to this decision, customs duty of 5-5 per cent was levied on the import of these two commodities. In such a situation, it is expected that the price of both these oils may come down by Rs 5 to 6 per liter. Apart from this, the government has decided to limit the export of sugar to 100 lakh tonnes. According to the order issued by DGFT, this ban on sugar will continue from June 1, 2022 to October 31, 2022 or till further orders.