NEW DELHI, SEPT 15: The government today allowed public sector State Trading Corporation (STC) to import other edible oils apart from palmolein to tide over the edible oil supply crisis in the country.The decision to give STC the flexibility of importing other edible oils such as sunflower and soyabean oil was taken at a meeting of the cabinet committee on prices here. STC has already been allowed to import 1.5 lakh tonnes of palmolein for supply through the public distribution system (PDS) and last week it was asked to speed up the purchase to ensure the entire quantity arrived in India before October end.The decision to allow flexibility in edible oil purchase to STC stems from sharp rise in palmolein prices following demand from other countries, especially China.An official spokesman said the railways and surface transport ministry had been asked to give priority for berthing and movement of imported edible oil. CCP also decided to allow import of rapeseed today. This follows the Cabinet Committeeon Economic Affairs (CCEA) decision to allow import of split soyabean and sunflower seeds Import of oilseeds would be allowed under open general licence (OGL). Under OGL, quantity of imports are unrestricted though a license is required for shipments. Till now, oilseeds had been under restricted list of imports.India has decided to import edible oil and oilseeds to tied over a 15 lakh tonnes shortage in the commodity. Against a 78 lakh tonne demand for edible oil, domestic production is expected to be only 63 lakh tonnes. Besides the STC, government expects private traders to import about 13.5 lakh tonnes.Earlier in July, government cut the duty on edible oil imports to 15 per cent from 25 per cent to facilitate large scale imports. The CCP also decided to allow export of ghee and skimmed milk powder.
