MUMBAI, Feb. 4. (Business Line) - SERIOUS malpractices in the import ofvegetable oils including misuse of concessional duty and misdeclaration ofoil to avail of lower duty need to be checked with effective rules to plugpossible loopholes, a Kolkata-based trade association has urged.In a representation to the Central Board of Excise and Customs, Mr RajuMansinghka, President of the All-India Oils and Seeds Foreign TradeAssociation, has pointed out that fatty acid distillate is mixed withrefined oil and declared as crude oil in order to avail of lower customsduty on the latter.In order to address the issue which has serious health implication, theassociation has suggested a stipulation of minimum of 3 per cent freefatty acid content for crude oils of palm group or reduction of the dutydifferential between crude and refined oils to 15 percentage points.In the guise of vanaspati imports from Nepal, a lot of refined liquid oil(refined palm oil) is flowing into the country, the trade body hasalleged, adding that though declared as vanaspati, such oil is neitherhydrogenated nor is sesame oil used as tracer.The association has recommended that restricting vanaspati imports fromNepal through only two or three customs borders and testing of samples forquality by the customs and Government food laboratories would help preventmalpractice and reduce distortions in the market.