Govt may reintroduce import duty on wheat
Central government might reintroduce import duty on wheat, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on Tuesday.
The duty had been abolished in December after local prices started rising due to low stock. Critics said the move, announced right in the middle of 2016-17 sowing season, would dishearten farmers.
Now, with wheat production expected to be a record 96.6 million tonnes in the 2016-17 crop season that will end in June, the Centre could do a rethink.
Traders and industry players said there is no need to bring back the import duty as India might need to import two-three million tonnes of wheat in 2017-18 marketing year that will start from April 1.
“Government will take all necessary steps to ensure payment of minimum support price (MSP) to farmers and may review the duty on wheat if required,” Paswan said on Tuesday.
Earlier, an official had said the decision to abolish import duty on wheat was not permanent.
The central government has fixed a target to purchase over 33 million tonnes of wheat from farmers in 2017-18 marketing year, which is over 43 per cent more than the actual procurement in 201617 marketing year.
Paswan also said during the ongoing kharif rice marketing season that started from October, the Centre has procured 44.4 million tonnes of paddy (27 million tonnes of rice) and record quantities of pulses.
“However, there were complaints that even then they were not getting the MSP for moong and arhar. In response, the government raised the buffer stock of pulses from 1.5 million tonnes to 2 million tonnes and tasked central agencies with procuring pulses from farmers, which is still on,” Paswan said. An inter-ministerial body on Tuesday approved 15 foreign investment proposals, including those relating to Apollo Hospitals, Hindustan Aeronautics, Dr Reddy's, and Vodafone, worth ~12,200 crore.
"15 of 24 FDI proposals were approved while three were rejected," sources said.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), headed by economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, deferred six proposals, including that of Gland Pharma.
These proposals were deferred for further consultation and want of more information, sources added.
Among the proposals approved, Twinstar Technologies will alone bring foreign capital of ~9,000 crore into the country.
Besides, proposal of Apollo Hospitals worth ~750 crore and that of public sector unit Hindustan Aeronautics worth ~170 crore for helicopter manufacturing also got green signal from FIPB.
The government has already announced winding up of FIPB and putting in place a new mechanism, in an attempt to improve ease of doing business.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget 2017-18 announced abolishing FIPB, saying 90 per cent of foreign investment approvals are via automatic route and only 10 per cent through FIPB.
Currently, FIPB offers single-window clearance for applications on FDI in India that are under the approval route.