Govt keeps oil import prices unchanged

India, the second-largest buyer of vegetable oils, didn't revise benchmark import prices of crude palm and soybean oil.

Crude palm oil price was unchanged at $447 a tonne, while soybean oil price was unchanged at $580, the finance ministry said in a statement in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The benchmark prices, introduced to prevent traders from paying lower import duties by understating edible oil prices, are revised in line with international edible oil prices.

The government hasn't changed the benchmark since August. India bought 347,320 metric tonnes of edible oil last month, 38 per cent more than a year earlier, according to the Solvent Extractors' Association.

Vegetable oil imports, including non-cooking oils, rose to 427,912 tonnes from 302,034 tonnes a year earlier, according to the trade body, which represents about 800 oilseed processors.