Oilseed processors complain of duty-free veg oil import from Safta nations

Domestic producers have met officials in the Union finance ministry with a request to put edible oil and vanaspati in the negative or barred list of such imports

The rising share of vegetable oil import from neighbouring countries, which are not known to produce any, has irked edible oil producers. 

Over the past two months, soft oil (soybean, sunflower and rapeseed/mustard) is being imported in large quantity from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan at zero duty under the South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta). This is in contrast to the traditional import of palm oil (crude palm oil or CPO and refined oil or RBD) directly from Indonesia and Malaysia.  

Domestic producers say this is a breach of the rules on origin, which mandates 30 per