India's vegetable oils import in May increased by about 33 per cent to 13.71 lakh tonnes, the highest quantity ever imported in a single month by the country.
The import of vegetable oils during the same month last year was 10.33 lakh tonnes, according to industry data.
"Import of vegetable oils during May 2015 witnessed a record tonnage of 13,71,662 tonnes since import started in 1994 as compared to 10,33,550 tonnes in May 2014," Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said in a statement.
Meanwhile, during November-May period, import of vegetable oils increased by 26 per cent to 78.33 lakh tonnes as compared to 61.98 lakh tonnes in the year-ago period.
Oil year runs from November to October.
Out of the total import in November-May period, inward shipment of edible oils stood at 77.08 lakh tonnes and non-edible oils at 1.25 lakh tonnes.
"Due to Nil export duty on palm products since October, 2014 by Indonesia and Malaysia and reduced demand of the crude palm oil for bio diesel, pushed the export of palm products to India to reduce burgeoning stock held by the exporting countries viz Indonesia and Malaysia," SEA said.
In December last year, the government had hiked import duty on both crude and refined edible oils by 5 per cent.
The customs duty on crude oil has been increased to 7.5 per cent from 2.5 per cent earlier, while the duty on refined edible oil has been raised to 15 per cent from 10 per cent.
India's vegetable oil imports rose 12 per cent to an all-time high of 11.82 million tonnes in the 2013-14 oil marketing year, ended October, on rise in domestic consumption and low rates of cooking oils in global markets.
The country imports about 60 per cent of the annual domestic demand of vegetable oils (comprising edible and non-edible oils) which amounts to average of about 19 million tonnes a year.
