Consumers face the heat with cooking oil on the boil

Pune: Consumers are paying more for cooking oils as consumption increases due to Diwali. India increased import duties last month to protect interests of soybean farmers in poll-bound Maharashtra. As the soyabean prices continue to rule below the minimum support price levels, the edible oil industry has now demanded 5% RoDTEP (Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export products) incentive for oilmeal exports to support the sector.

According to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs data, all India average prices of packaged mustard oil has increased by 17.5 %, soyabean oil by 14.87%, sunflower by 18% and palm oil by 24% during last two months. The prices increased after India increased the import duty on all the cooking oils by about 20% on September 14.

The reason for increase in import duty just before Diwali was to support soyabean prices in Maharashtra, the second largest producer of soyabeans in the country. However, the soyabean prices continue to remain subdued. The modal average price of soyabean at the Latur agricultural produce marketing committee, one of the prominent hubs of soyabean trade and processing in India, is ₹4,300/quintal vs the MSP of ₹4,892/quintal.