Hike duty differential on crude, refined palm oils: Ruchi

Consumer products firm Ruchi Soya Industries today urged the government to raise duty differential on crude and refined palm oils to provide a level playing field to domestic industry.
The company is a leading edible oil and soya foods player.
"We have urged the government to increase duty differential between refined and crude oil imports to 20 per cent from the present 7.5 per cent," Ruchi Soya Managing Director Dinesh Shahra said in a statement here.
The government recently hiked tax on crude vegetable oils to 12.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent and on refined oils to 20 per cent from 15 per cent to curb dumping from Malaysia and Indonesia.

"We propose to divert the revenue collected from increased duty for promotion of oilseed cultivation within the country. This would avert the unabated flow of refined palm oil into India and provide a level playing field to domestic industry," he said.
"India has port-based refining capacity of about 20 million tonnes per annum to refine imported oils with an investment of over Rs 10,000 crore and employing more than 5,00,000 people directly and much more indirectly.

"The decision of the Government to raise import duty on both crude and refined palm oils will benefit the domestic refining industry as well as local farmers," he said.

This initiative will also help in saving foreign exchange outflow as edible oils are the third largest import item in the country after petroleum and gold. In India, around 19-20 million tonnes of edible oils is consumed per annum, of which 14 million tonnes is imported. Of this, 9 million tonnes is palm oil, the Ruchi Soya MD said.
At present, Malaysia and Indonesia are the two biggest exporters of palm oil. This decision will not have much impact on prices as inflation in case of edible oils has been lowest in comparison to other food articles, Shahra said.
Meanwhile, speaking at 'Globoil India 2015' conference here, he made a fervent plea to the industry and Government to act in close coordination to ensure India's food security.

No country aspiring to emerge as a world power can afford to be dependent on imports to meet its food requirements, he said.
At the conference, Ruchi Soya was bestowed Globoil Diamond Awards for being 'No. 1 exporter of oilmeals 2015' and top manufacturer of branded palm oil.