Govt not considering imposition of duty on wheat imports

The government is not considering the imposition of duty on wheat imports as of now, Parliament was informed today.

"There is no such proposal under consideration of the government at this stage," Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply to a question on whether the government was considering levying duty on wheat imports.

Earlier this week, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had also said there was no such proposal to levy duty on wheat imports.

The government had banned wheat exports in early 2007 and made imports duty-free to augment domestic availability. It had imported about seven million tonnes of wheat in 2006 and 2007 to meet its buffer stock requirement.

The question of imposing import duty on wheat arises in the backdrop of the country's record 80.71-million tonne output in 2009-10, surpassing the previous year's production of 80.68 million tonnes.

Flour millers are against the imposition of import duty on wheat, as they require a high-protein variety from Australia.

India could import about two lakh tonnes of wheat this fiscal, mainly from Australia, as against 1.58 lakh tonnes a year ago, flour millers had said earlier.