02/05/2013 (Hindu Business Line) - The Government has reduced the base import price of palm oil and its variants, while the same has been hiked for crude soyabean oil in line with the change in international prices.

The base price for import of crude palm oil has been reduced to $824 per tonne from the earlier $827. For refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil, the new base price has been set at $851 per tonne (earlier price of $857), while for other palm oil it stands at $838 ($842).

For crude palmolein, the base price is reduced to $838 ($842), while for RBD palmolein it is fixed at $861 ($867). For palmolein (others), the base price is fixed at $860 ($866). The base import price for crude soyabean oil has been increased by $9 per tonne to $1,103 from the earlier $1,094.

India is one of the largest importers of edible oils and imports in March 2013 were up 23.22 per cent at 8.96 lakh tonne, over 7.27 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period last year. In the first five months of the oil year from November 2012 till March 2013, imports were up 22 per cent at 4.63 million tonnes against 3.78 million tonnes in the corresponding period last year.