Import duty on wheat doubled to 20%
City: 

The central government on Wednesday doubled the import duty on wheat to 20 per cent to curb cheap shipments and give positive price signal to farmers in the ongoing rabi season. It also imposed import duty of 50 per cent on peas to check cheaper shipments from countries like Canada.

The central board of excise and customs in a notification said it seeks “to increase rate of basic customs duty on peas, from zero to 50 per cent and wheat from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.”

In March, the governme­nt had imposed 10 per cent import duty on wheat to contain sharp fall in local prices due to bumper crop of 98.38 million tonnes in 2016-17 crop year (July-June).

As farmers have started planting of rabi (winter) wheat crop, the government wants to give positive price signal and encourage farmers to grow wheat in more area. The government does not want wheat growers to follow the way of pulses farmers who shifted to other crops this kharif season as prices remained low just before the sowing period owing to bumper crop last year.

The country produced a record 22 million tonnes of pulses in 2016-17 crop year, which led to a fall in domestic prices, even below MSP.

Moreover, the country also imported about 5 million tonnes of pulses in the last financial year. The import duty on peas has been imposed to curb shipments and boost domestic prices. Recently, the government had also imposed quantitative restrictions on import of other pulses like tur.