Crude Sunflower Oil Import Duty Cut to Nil, Palm and Soybean to 5%

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on 24 September 2026 that the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on the main crude edible oils brought into India has been lowered. World prices of cooking oil have climbed steeply, that climb had begun to show up in Indian shops, and the duty is the quickest lever the Centre holds over the landed cost of an imported oil.

The new rates

The levy on the refined versions of the same oils has been trimmed alongside, but not by an equal amount. The Centre has deliberately held the distance between the crude rate and the refined rate at 19.25%.

Why the gap is kept

A duty wall between crude and refined oil settles the question of where the refining happens. If refined oil could enter almost as cheaply as crude, mills inside the country would sit idle and the value addition would move abroad. Keeping crude cheaper to bring in protects the use of Indian refining capacity, discourages a flood of refined imports and leaves the processing margin at home, which is the level playing field the announcement speaks of.

Making sure the cut reaches the buyer

A tariff cut helps a household only if the trade passes it down, so an advisory has gone to the edible oil associations and to other industry stakeholders. They have been asked to rework the Price to Distributors (PTD) and the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) at once, in step with the fall in landed cost, and the associations have been asked to tell their members to act without waiting. The government has added that it will keep watching world markets and shop prices and will step in again if it has to, weighing the interest of the consumer against that of the oilseed farmer and the refining industry.

For the exam

• BCD is a customs levy, so a change in it is a tariff decision rather than a tax on domestic sale.
• Nil duty applies to crude sunflower oil alone; crude palm oil and crude soybean oil pay 5%.
• The number to memorise is the 19.25% differential and the reason the government gives for holding it.