India’s Wheat Millers Seek Import Tariff Cut to Boost Shipments
Retail prices for wheat were up by about 8% from a year ago at the start of March, government data show.
India’s wheat millers are asking the government to cut or scrap the 40% import duty on the grain as the nation’s stockpiles slump.
The world’s second-biggest producer of the grain needs imports to ease concern about dwindling inventories, according to Navneet Chitlangia, president of Rollers Flour Millers’ Federation of India. Retail prices for wheat were up by about 8% from a year ago at the start of March, government data show.
“The government should reduce the import duty to nil or keep it at less than 10%,” Chitlangia told reporters in Goa. The group wants the cut in duty to take effect after farmers have sold this year’s crop either to the government or traders, which normally occurs by around June.
The hotter-than-usual weather that’s forecast for India for the coming months is raising concerns about the nation’s wheat harvest. Any reduction in supply could undermine the government’s efforts to temper prices, with domestic stockpiles near the lowest in 16 years, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
If the duty were to be reduced, millers in southern parts of the country could import grain for less than they can bring it in from the growing belt in India’s central and northern regions. Chitlangia sees 2 million to 3 million tons of imports into the south as viable.
The lobby group expects the harvest in the year to June to rise to 110 million tons from as much as 106 million tons a year earlier helped by higher acreage, according to Chitlangia.
The government should also allow unrestricted export of wheat products including refined flour, he said.
