Restrict refined palm oil import to 50,000 tonnes a month: Industry body

Citing reports of the government's plan to issue licenses to state agencies for distribution under Public Distribution System (PDS) and to private organisations, the oilseeds crushing units body urged government to meaningfully restrict such imports or else it warned that the move can open floodgates for refined or RBD palm oil from Malaysia.

Last week, government had put plam oil imports from Malaysia under restricted category following criticism by the country's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of India’s actions in Kashmir and on Citizenship Act. In the past few months refined oil imports from Malaysia were at 80 per cent.

The Solvent Extractors Association of India has said that if at all government issues licenses to import refined oil, then it should be capped at 50,000 per month and licenses should be issued for importing in different regions of the country to avoid dumping in one area.

Before restricting import of refined palm oil, industry officials were told informally, not to import oil from Malaysia. Imports had already stopped since last one week following the curbs and buyers even started importing crude palm oil from Indonesia even if they need to pay a premium of $10 per tonne over price offered by Malaysia.