NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): In order to make availability of rice in the country, India has removed the import duty on certain rice varieties by 70% till September 2010. Rice output was first hit by weak monsoon and later flooding in the country.

The Central Board of Excise and Customs official, who did not want to be known said, the government has decided to scrap 70% duty on the import of semi milled and wholly milled rice, till September 30, 2010.

Earlier, in the last month, the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukharjee had decided to scrap the rice import duty in the wake of weak output estimation due to bad weather conditions.

The government had earlier allowed duty-free import of rice between March 20, 2008 and March 31, 2009 as part of its measures to control inflation. The customs duty was restored from April 1.



The latest move came after drought in about half of India and subsequent floods in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka ravaged the most important summer-sown crop paddy.

Summer-sown rice output is likely to fall by 15 million to 16 million metric tons from 84.58 million tons last season due to drought and then floods. Wholesale prices rose at their fastest pace in a decade last year before decelerating as commodity and energy prices fell following the global meltdown.

Post your comment  (0)

Connect:

Post to Twitter

Post to Facebook