Consider the following statements:
1.The quantity of imported edible oils is more than the domestic production of edible oils in the last five years.
2.The Government does not impose any customs duty on all the imported edible oils as a special case.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
India’s vegetable oil imports have skyrocketed in recent years to about 14 million tonnes, worth approximately $11 billion (over Rs.70,000 crore). In value terms vegoil imports are next only to crude and gold, and the highest for any food commodity. This is an alarming situation. Our import dependence has worsened to over 70 per cent (so we locally produce only 30% of our needs). Statement 1 is correct. Statement 2 is wrong, as government does impose customs duty on imported edible oils. In the past decades, liberal policies have meant low rates, and at times zero rates too, but duties have persisted. There was another distressed sector – Pulses – where the government demonstrated courage in taking steps with far reaching implications. Our domestic production has grown dramatically. But we have been accused of protectionist tendencies. There is immense international pressure to ease policy restrictions on pulses; yet, the priority at the moment is remunerative prices for pulse growers. Same should ultimately be the case with edible oils sector too. Sources: http://bsmedia.business-standard.com/_media/bs/img/article/2017-10/19/full/1508354917-3611.jpg https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xGp5dl8oB5MpY_HZNCPvGvYBBTQr1WGn/view