Centre Keen On Helping Palm-Oil Farmers, Consumers, Says Central Minister

Kakinada:The Union minister of state for commerce Jitin Prasada has said the basic customs duty on crude palm-oil has been reduced to increase domestic refining, reduce prices for consumers and ensure that farmers get a fair price for their crop.

The minister stated this in Parliament in reply to a question from Eluru MP Putta Mahesh Kumar. He said there were some short-comings in the dynamic import duty system that was introduced earlier and “these are being corrected.”

India depends on imports for about 60 per cent of its cooking oils. By reducing the customs duty on oils like soybean and palm-oil, the government aimed at reducing the inflationary pressure on cooking oil prices, increase the domestic refineries and promote the local cooking oil refining industry, the minister said.

Prasada said domestic industries would import less crude palm oil and process it locally, which would increase the availability and affordability of by-products like palm fatty acid distillates which will benefit the fast-moving consumer goods industry. He also said that as per the national mission on edible oils – oil palm, a comprehensive support package is being provided to oil palm farmers in AP, including in Eluru district, where oil palm is grown.

“This includes several programmes such as planting, promotion of intercropping, irrigation, provision of machinery, provision of financial assistance for the development of nurseries, seed gardens and processing mills and infrastructure.

For Andhra Pradesh, including Eluru district, the state government announces the price of oil palm kernels every month based on the formula recommended by CACP, taking into account factors like oil extraction ratio and kernel nut price, he said.