CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wants import duty on cooking oil lifted

Vijayawada: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy urged the Centre to lift import duty on cooking oil, and to reduce import duty on mustard oil keeping in view the present shortage of edible oils.

In his letters to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman and Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal, he said that import duty should be removed as there was a shortage of sunflower oil due to Russia-Ukraine war.

The Chief Minister said the present import duty on mustard oil stands at 45 per cent. He said mustard production was high in Canada and in view of present cooking oil shortage the import duty on mustard oil should be reduced.

The Chief Minister said that usage of cooking oils in the country stands at 240 lakh MT during 2021-22 and the production in the country stands at 40 per cent. He said people are facing hardship with steep increase in cooking oil prices and prevailing shortage in supply. He said that majority of people in the state are consuming sunflower oil and 28 per cent of people are using palm oil and 4.3 per cent people groundnut oil.

The Chief Minister said a task force was constituted and officials intensified raids on oil dealers to prevent black marketing. He said AP Oil Federation has been selling cooking oil at retail counters in rytu bazars and reduced rates.