Sky rocket prices of Edible oils

Hyderabad: After vegetables, eggs and onions, the prices of edible oils- Sunflower, soya bean and Palm oil had increased up at least from Rs 5 to Rs 7 per litre overnight.

The prices have increased due to central government’s decision to impose higher duties on edible oils imported from other countries. This effect is most visible in Telangana state which registered highest consumption of sunflower and palm oil in the country.

The state- owned enterprise Telangana State Cooperative Oilseeds Growers Federation Limited (TSOILFED) had also increased the price of its Vijaya brand of oils supplied in the state.

An official of TSOILFED said that “The sudden increase of import duty put heavy burden on the federation in procuring oil from other countries. Telangana has been importing palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and sunflower oil from Ukraine and Russia to meet the local demands. A small quantity of soyabean oil was also imported from Latin America.”

The import duty on palm oil has been increased from 15% to 30%, duty on refined oil was increased from 25 per cent to 40 per cent, import duty on crude sunflower oil has been increased from 12.5 per cent to 25 per cent and for refined sunflower oil, the duty has been increased from 20 per cent to 35 per cent.

The decision to increase import duties has been taken by the government to curb the excess oil imports and support farmers to make available good remunerative price for their produce.

Unless domestic production of oil goes up, it is unlikely that the prices of oil would go down.