After much delay, the central government?s subsidised edible oil programme to protect the poorer sections from rising prices has been finally scheduled to start from July 28. The Union minister for agriculture, food and public distribution would formally launch the distribution in the Ranga Reddy district of Andhra Pradesh.
The scheme provides for distribution of 1 million tonne of imported edible oil during 2008-09 at a subsidy of Rs 15 per kg through state government?s public distribution system (PDS). The edible oil will be provided at the rate of 1 kg per ration card every month. The subsidy would be to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore. Already, Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy has launched the scheme in some pockets in the state.
Meanwhile, according to a statement by the ministry of agriculture on Friday, state-owned agencies like PEC, MMTC, STC and Nafed have been entrusted the task of importing, refining, packing and distributing the subsidised edible oils to the states.
Till date, the government has placed orders for import of 2.60 lakh tonne of edible oil via state-owned agencies. Out of these 1.36 lakh tonne has already landed at various ports in India.
According to a statement, 39,800 tonne of edible oils have been delivered to various states against a demand of 88, 900 tonne till July 21. The states, which have demanded a significant quantity of imported edible oil include Andhra Pradesh (20,750 tonne), Maharashtra (18,200 tonne), Tamil Nadu (15,500 tonne) and Orissa (6,800 tonne).
The prices of the edible have seen a sharp rise in the last one year due to an increase in palm oil prices globally. In a bid to curb the rising prices of edible oil, the government in March had announced a cut in the import duty on palm oil. In 2007, the import duty on crude palm oil was 70%, on refined palm oil – 80%, crude sunflower oil – 75%, refined sunflower oil – 85% and on soya oil – 45%.
Since April, duty on all crude edible oils have been reduced to 0% and to 7.5% on refined oil.