The 50 per cent duty on wheat imports was back yesterday. The duty-free import permitted by the Centre in September last year expired on February 28. "If necessary, we may consider allowing duty-free imports at a later stage," Union Food Secretary T Nandakumar said. | |
| Flour millers are not happy at the development and are seeking an extension of the nil duty. "The zero duty was an effective way to keep the prices under check. Though the global price at $230-235 a tonne (Rs 10,120-10,340) is higher than the domestic prices at Rs 8,550-8,600 a tonne, nil duty would have acted as a cushion," said Veena Sharma of the Roller Flour Millers' Federation. |
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| Spot prices of wheat in Delhi have slipped Rs 30 a quintal to Rs 1030 since Wednesday following the ban on futures trading in wheat and release of wheat by the FCI. |
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| After the wheat procurement by government fell from 14.8 million tonne in 2005-06 to 9.2 million tonne in 2006-07, the government decided to import 5.5 million tonne wheat through the State Trading Corporation. |
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| Since the wheat was meant for public distribution, duty-free import was permitted. In June last year, the government had allowed private players to import wheat at a concessional duty of 5 per cent, which was to remain in place for the calendar year 2006. In September, the 5 per cent duty was brought down to nil to tide over the domestic wheat shortage. On December 22, the nil-duty was further extended till February. |
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| Some millers are of the view that since the government pressed the panic button by banning wheat futures, it should have kept the nil-duty import window open as whenever the international prices fall, and that may be possible in next few months when new wheat arrives in Europe, they could have placed the import orders. |
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