NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India, the world's biggest vegetable oil buyer after China, should tax imports of cooking fat to check a surge in overseas purchases, a leading trade body said on Wednesday.
India's vegetable oil imports more than doubled in May to 751,097 tonnes as traders tried to encash the friendly tax regime.
"We have strongly recommended to the government to revisit the import duty structure," Ashok Sethia, president of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA), said in a statement.
India does not tax crude edible oil imports, while it levies a 7.5 percent tax on refined oils.
The SEA said the government should slap an import tax of at least 20 percent on crude palm oil, 30 percent on RBD palmolein, 25 percent on crude soyoil.
India buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia and soyoil from Argentina and Brazil.
Source : REUTERS