Sunday 9 August 2015

India Slaps 10 Per Cent Duty On Wheat To Curb Import

The duty impost is now expected to halt import of another 500,000 tonnes that millers had planned to import.

India will impose an import duty of 10 per cent on wheat until March 31 next year, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Friday, reinstating tariffs after a gap of eight years following big overseas purchases in recent months.

The trader, who did not want to be named, said at least one of the rejected cargoes was heading towards Tuticorin port in southern India. The estimated revenue implication of this measure “is revenue gain of about Rs 90 crore in the remaining part of the year”, the finance ministry said in a statement here. Traders opposed the government’s move. She said that 3 lakh tonnes of wheat has reached Indian ports and another 2-3 lakh tonnes is on its way.

As per the worldwide Grain Council data, the exports price of wheat from the United States was $217 per tonne on Thursday while the domestic minimum support price offered to farmers during recently concluded rabi marketing season was Rs 1,450 per quintal. “The government is only trying to offload its low-quality wheat in the market while trying to prevent the entry of high-quality wheat from Australia and cheaper wheat from Russian Federation and France”, said Tejinder Narang, a Delhi-based grain analyst. Wheat production in India, the world’s second biggest grower, is estimated to have declined to 90.78 million tonnes in 2014-15, against the record production of 95.85 million tonnes during 2013-14.

Mills in southern India, which depend on supplies from growing regions in the north, bought wheat mostly from Australia because domestic grain was more expensive.

In the recently concluded rabi marketing season, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) procured 28.08 million tonne of wheat from farmers, out of which 26.62 million tonne have been purchased under the relaxed quality norms as the crop got damaged due to unseasonal rains.

Source:bulletinleader.com



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