Govt hikes customs duty on wheat to 40% to curb imports, protect industry

The government has hiked the customs duty on wheat to 40 per cent from 30 per cent to curb imports and protect the domestic industry.

The government wants to restrict overseas purchase so that domestic prices of wheat do not come under pressure as the country's wheat output is expected to scale a record high this year.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), through a notification, has hiked the basic customs duty (BCD) on wheat to 40 per cent.

In May last year, the government had hiked BCD on wheat to 30 per cent from 20 per cent.

The government has fixed wheat's minimum support price (MSP) or the price at which it buys from farmers, at Rs 1,840 per quintal, up from Rs 1,735 a year earlier, as part of its decision to fix the support price at a minimum of 1.5 times the production cost.

The country's wheat production this season might cross 100 million tonnes, an all-time high. The output stood at record 99.70 million tonnes in the 2017-18 crop year (July-June).