New Delhi: The Finance Ministry, on Thursday, lifted customs duty and agricultural infrastructure and development cess levied on crude soya bean oil and crude sunflower seed oil, on account of Tariff Rate Quota Authorisation (TRQ)’ conditions.

The exemption comes into effect from May 11 to June 30. Only importers with TRQ (Tariff rate Quota) licenses for the 2022-23 fiscal will be eligible to avail of the exemption.

What is TRQ?

With Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ), importers are freed from excessive tax burdens up to a certain level. Upon exceeding the volume limit, the tariff is applied at higher levels to additional imports.

Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) allows the TRQ to importers.

Previously, the government discontinued imports of crude soya bean and sunflower seed oils falling under TRQ in January and March, respectively.

On Wednesday, the finance ministry released a notification in which it was stated that this exemption will be applied to both degummed and non-degummed soya bean oils.

A year back in May 2022, the Finance Ministry in a notification informed about freeing the import of crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil from custom duty and agricultural infrastructure development cess of 20 lakh metric tonnes applicable for two financial years (2023-23, 2023-24) to curb domestic prices.

The second largest consumer and number one importer of vegetable oil is India, 60 per cent of its meets is fulfilled by importing vegetable oil. It includes palm oil and its derivatives in larger quantities, which are imported from Indonesia and Malaysia.

“Members have responded favourably and started announcing a further reduction in MRP and wholesale price of edible oils of their brands,” the apex industry body The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said in a release on May 5.

India depends heavily on mustard, palm, soya bean, and sunflower-derived edible oils.