To cool down prices of edible oils, oilseeds, centre imposes stock limit till 30 June

Hyderabad: In an effort to further cool down the prices of edible oils, the Union government on Friday imposed a limit on edible oils and oilseeds stock up to 30 June 2022.

For edible oils, the stock limit will be 30 quintals for retailers, 500 quintals for wholesalers, 30 quintals for retail outlets of bulk consumers, i.e. big chain retailers and shops, and 1,000 quintals for its depots. Processors of edible oils would be able to stock 90 days of their storage capacities.

For edible oilseeds, the stock limit would be 100 quintals for retailers, 2,000 quintals for wholesalers. Processors of edible oilseeds would be able to stock 90 days of production of edible oils as per daily input production capacity.

The government had earlier notified the stock limits on edible oils and oilseeds in its order dated 8 October 2021 that was valid up to 31 March 2022. However, the quantities of stock limits of oils and oilseeds were left to be decided by the states and Union Territories on the basis of available stock and consumption patterns.

On review of this order, it was observed that only six states – Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, and Bihar – had imposed the stock limit order. Since the implementation of stock limits across all states and UTs is necessary to transfer the full benefit of price control to end consumers, the Union government has specified the quantities of stock limits of edible oils and oilseeds for all states/UTs except these six states.

This decision would empower the Union government and all states and UTs to regulate storage and distribution of edible oils and oilseeds. This would also help the government check hoarding of edible oils and oilseeds in the country.

Earlier, the government had announced a reduction in the basic duty of crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil from 2.5% to nil. The agri-cess on these oils was also brought down from 20% to 7.5% for crude palm oil and 5% for crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil. Consequent to this reduction, the total duty is now 7.5% for crude palm oil and 5% for crude soyabean oil and crude sunflower oil.

The basic duty on RBD palmolein oil was slashed to 12.5% from 17.5% recently. The basic duty on refined soybean and refined sunflower oil has been slashed to 17.5% from 32.5%. It was observed that the maximum benefit of rationalization of duty had not been passed on to the end consumers and this latest initiative of the government is another step in this direction.

On 3 November 2021, the government had cut the basic duty on crude palm oil, crude soyabean oil, and crude sunflower oil from 2.5 per cent to nil in a bid to reign in the continuous rise in cooking oil prices which started last year.