On 17 November 2017, the Indian government increased the import duties on various vegetable oils and soybeans oils through a notifications released on the website of the Central Board of Excise and Customs. The government has introduced these measures to support its domestic oil seed farmers, and shield them from cheaper international imports.
Accordingly, the import tax on soybeans has been increased to 45% from 30%, although in its earlier round of hikes, the government had only increased import duties on different vegetable oils. The import tax on crude palm oil has been hiked to 30%, said a government order issued on Friday, which is twice what was charged earlier. Meanwhile, on the duty on refined palm oil has been increased to 40% from 25% earlier.
Soybean oil import duties were also raised to 30% from 17.5% for crude soybean oil and to 35% from 20% for refined soybean oil. Sunflower oil, which had escaped attention during the first round of import hikes, has also seen import duty rise to 25% from 12.5% for crude sunflower oil and to 35% from 20% for refined sunflower oil. Also affected were rapeseed oil, including canola, mustard oil and colza oil. The crude fractions of these oils saw import duty hikes to 25% from 12.5%, while duties on refined oils were raised to 35% from 20%.
