Considering the festive season, the central government has taken a big step to provide relief to the common people affected by inflation. The government has taken an important decision to reduce the agri cess and custom duty on palm oil and sunflower oil. Earlier, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution had issued restrictive rules to curb stockpiling of oil and oilseeds. The stock limit will be applicable till March 31, 2022. The Center has directed the state governments to ensure strict implementation of the orders.
According to the Centre, retail prices of edible oils, excluding mustard oil, declined by 3.28 per cent to 8.58 per cent. Although the Center has reduced the tax on edible oil, the market has not yet seen the desired reduction in the price of edible oil.
The government has reduced agricultural excise duty on palm, soybean and sunflower oil till March 2022. Apart from this, agricultural cess has also been reduced. This is likely to bring down the price of edible oil during the festive season and may bring relief to the common man.
According to a notification issued by the government, the customs duty on edible oil has been reduced. Apart from this, agricultural cess has also been reduced. Crude palm oil will now have an agricultural cess of 7.5 per cent. The same rate for crude soybean oil and sunflower oil will be 5 per cent. After the cut, the customs duty on soybean and sunflower oil will be 8.25 per cent, 5.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent, respectively. Apart from this, the basic customs duty on sunflower, soybean, palm oil and palm oil has been increased from 32.5 per cent to 17.5 per cent.