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

The correct answer is nil. Among the oils covered by this decision, crude sunflower oil is the only one whose Basic Customs Duty was taken all the way down to zero, from the earlier level of 10%. Option A names the new rate of the other two oils in the announcement, crude soybean oil and crude palm oil, each of which came down from 10% to 5%, so it is the right figure attached to the wrong oil. Option D is the rate that applied before the change and not the rate that applies now, and a candidate who reads the question in a hurry can easily settle on the old number. Option C is a rate that does not figure in this decision at all. The safest way to hold the answer is to remember the pattern: one oil to zero, two oils to five, all three starting from ten.

The correct answer is 19.25%. While cutting the duty on crude oils, the government also trimmed the duty on the matching refined oils, but it kept the distance between the two rates at this level rather than letting it shrink. The purpose is stated plainly: a gap of this size keeps domestic refining capacity in use, discourages excessive imports of refined oil and gives Indian refiners a more level playing field, so the value addition takes place within the country. Options A, B and D are plausible only because they look like tariff percentages of the same order, and none of them is the figure named in the announcement. This is the single number from the decision that a paper setter is most likely to ask for, because it carries a policy reason with it rather than being a bare rate.

The correct answer is the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, which put out this announcement along with the advisory to the edible oil associations. The reason it and not another ministry speaks here is that the stated purpose of the step is to moderate retail prices of cooking oil and to shield the household budget from imported inflation, which falls squarely within the consumer affairs and food distribution mandate. Option A is tempting because customs duty is a tax matter, and it is a useful reminder that the ministry which announces a measure need not be the one that collects the levy. Option B deals with trade policy and option C with the interests of the oilseed grower, and both of those interests are mentioned in the announcement, but neither ministry issued it.

The correct answer is the Price to Distributors and the Maximum Retail Price, usually written as PTD and MRP. The advisory issued to the edible oil associations and other industry stakeholders asks them to bring both of these down in step with the lower landed cost, and to advise member firms to act without delay, so that the gain from the tariff cut is not retained in the supply chain. Option A lists prices paid to farmers for crops, which are fixed by the government and are not what a refiner or a packer revises. Option C names two price indices, which measure inflation rather than set it, so they cannot be revised by a company at all. Option D refers to prices in the public distribution system, a separate arrangement for subsidised foodgrain.