In a bid to tame price rise, the Union finance ministry on Tuesday waived customs duty and agriculture infrastructure development cess on yearly import of up to 20 lakh metric tonnes of crude soyabean and sunflower oil.
The exemption will come into effect from Wednesday and will be applicable for this financial year (2022-’23) and the next one (2023-’24), the finance ministry said in a notification.
A customs duty of 15% and an agriculture cess of 20% is usually levied on import of both the edible crude oils, according to government data.
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs said that the move was aimed at providing relief to consumers.
The price of edible oils has been one of the major contributors to a spike in India’s retail inflation which hit an eight-year high of 7.79% in April. Among food items, oils and fats had the highest inflation rate of 17.28% during the month, government data showed.
The customs duty waiver on soyabean and sunflower oils was announced two days after the Centre slashed excise duty on petrol and diesel. On Sunday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the move will reduce the price of petrol by Rs 9.5 per litre and diesel by Rs 7 a litre.
On Saturday, the government had waived customs duty on the import of some raw material used by the steel industry. Meanwhile, the export duty on iron ores was raised by up to 50%.
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