By Thomas Kutty Abraham
MUMBAI: India, the world’s second-largest buyer of vegetable oils, didn’t revise benchmark import prices for crude palm and soybean oil.
The crude palm oil benchmark was unchanged at $447 a metric ton, while the soybean oil benchmark was unchanged at $580, the finance ministry said in a statement in New Delhi yesterday.
The benchmarks were introduced to prevent traders from paying lower import duties by understating edible oil prices. The rates track international edible oil prices, and traders pay import duties based on the prevailing benchmark rate for the commodity they are importing.
The government has not changed the benchmark rates since September to stem an increase in domestic prices caused by a shortfall in oilseed production.
The following table lists the benchmark import prices of various grades of vegetable oils in dollars per ton.