NEW DELHI, Aug 29 Asia Pulse - The federal Food and Commerce Ministrieshave favoured a cut in import duty on oilseeds and crude palm oil (CPO) onaccount of price increases."Federal Commerce Ministry mooted the proposal for slashing the importduty on edible oils and oilseeds, federal Food Ministry has given itsconsent to cut duty on CPO by 35 per cent and also in principle approvedcutting duty on oilseeds," official sources told PTI.They said the move has been initiated in the wake of a rise in edible oilprices in the last few months which could increase even further, owing toa fall in production leading to distress for the consumers.The proposed cut in duty on CPO will bring it down to 30 per cent from thepresent 65 per cent and "is in consumer interest", they added.It will not be addressed for any specific sector like vanaspati, whichuses CPO as the primary raw material, but for all the categories andrestricted to the next six months.A duty cut in oilseeds will also ensure sufficient raw material forextracting oils. Greater inflow of crude oils is expected to increaseutilisation of refining capacity.They said the proposal is now with the federal Finance Ministry, eventhough the federal Agriculture Ministry has opposed the move and based onthe comments of the four ministries, a final decision will be taken by theCabinet.India is the world's largest importer of edible oils and purchased 4.8million tonnes last year (November-October), including 1.4 million tonnesof CPO.