• Notification Date: 06-05-2022
• Notification No: N/A

Food Ministry Appeals for 5 Per Cent GST on De-oiled Rice Bran

The Union Food Ministry has appealed for imposing GST on de-oiled rice bran at the rate of 5 per cent. According the statement of Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey, the Food Ministry has made this suggestion with the intention of discouraging the use of this product for feed purpose. According to his statement, the Food Ministry has written to the Finance Ministry to impose 5 per cent GST charges on de-oiled rice bran.

At present, about 5 percent GST rate is applicable on products like rice bran and crude rice bran oil. According to the statement of the Food Secretary, imposing 5 per cent GST on de-oiled rice bran will create discouragement among the users and also discourage the sale of rice bran directly to the feed manufacturers. Hence, de-oiled rice bran will be available for the oil extraction. Sudhanshu Pandey further added that this matter will be discussed in the GST Council meeting.

People are getting increasingly dependent on edible oil imports. Hence, the country requires more domestic production of rice bran oil. At present, only 60 per cent of the capacity of rice bran oil has been utilized.

As the retail price of edible oil imports is rising at a rapid rate, there is an urgent need to produce more rice bran oil domestically. Hence the government is looking into this matter with great sincerity and importance. An oil palm mission has also been launched to enhance the local production of rice bran oil.

Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey has further added that the problem related to edible oil cannot be solved overnight since this is a deep-rooted issue. It is a real problem that the supplies of edible oil have been affected in some areas of the country. As Indonesia has recently banned the exports of palm oil, the entire market is facing a shortage in edible oil. But India already has stock of edible oil for the upcoming 40-45 days. So it would not affect the supplies to the country.

Indonesia has a capacity of 460 lakh tonnes of palm oils against the domestic requirement of 200 lakh tonnes. So, the country will have to start exporting palm oil after some time. India imports about 60 per cent of its requirement for edible oil. The present shortage of edible oil across the world has raised the global prices of oil. This has further resulted in the rise of retail prices of various products causing food inflation.