“To curtail the rising edible oil prices, the Government has notified a Central Order on 30th March 2022 amending the Removal of Licensing Requirements, Stock Limits and Movement Restrictions on Specified Foodstuffs Order, 2016 and its Central Order dated 3rd February 2022 by extending the stock limits for all Edible Oils and Oilseeds put together for a period up to 31st December 2022 for all States/Union Territories,” the Ministry said.

Earlier, Government vides its order dated 3rd February 2022 had imposed stock limit quantities on edible oils and oilseeds up to 30th June 2022 which has now been extended up to 31st December 2022 vide the latest order.

Another important amendment in this order is that the six states viz Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan and Bihar which had issued their control order in pursuance of Central Order dated 8th Oct. 2022 have also been brought under the purview of the latest order with effect from 1st April 2022.

“The above decision was taken after deliberations at the highest level on the upward price trends of all edible oils owing to the current geopolitical situations across the globe. The pressure on sunflower oil supplies from Ukraine has had a rub-on effect on the export policy of Indonesia, affecting palm oil imports; also, it was compounded by crop loss concerns in South America, impacting soybean oil supplies due to which the international prices of soyabean oil has shown a large upward trend,” the Ministry said.

International Prices of Soyabean Oil increased by 5.05 per cent over the month and by 42.22 per cent over the year. The international prices of palm oils, both crude and refined, have decreased over the week and the month and starting January 2022 have shown a substantial increasing trend.

For edible oils, the stock limit would be 30 quintals for retailers, 500 quintals for wholesalers, 30 quintals for retail outlets of bulk consumers i.e. big chain retailers and shops and 1000 quintals for its depots. Processors of edible oils would be able to stock 90 days of their storage/production capacities.

For edible oilseeds, the stock limit would be 100 quintals for retailers, 2000 quintals for wholesalers. Processors of edible oilseeds would be able to stock 90 days’ production of edible oils as per daily input production capacity. Exporters and importers have been kept outside the purview of this Order with some caveats.

The above measure is expected to curtail any unfair practices like hoarding, black marketing etc in the market and would help in controlling the prices of edible oils and also ensuring that the maximum benefit of the duty reduction is passed on to the end consumers.