Cooking Oil Price: The central government has made a significant decision about edible oil as the festive season approaches. On Wednesday, the Finance Ministry released a notification announcing that the central government has lowered the basic customs duty (BCD) on crude and refined soybean, palm, and sunflower oil. This reduction could result in lower edible oil prices. Should this occur, it will bring welcome relief to consumers during the festive season. It’s worth noting that edible oil consumption rises during the festive season.

What customs duty remains in effect now?

The customs duty on crude soybean oil and crude palm oil has been cut from 10% to 5%, while the duty on refined soybean oil and refined palm oil has been lowered from 32.5% to 27.5%. Additionally, the customs duty on crude sunflower oil has been reduced from 10% to zero, while the duty on refined sunflower oil has been decreased from 32.5% to 22.5%. These modifications will take effect starting September 24, 2026.

Vegetable oil imports decline

India’s vegetable oil imports dropped in August during the festive season. Per the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA), imports fell by 4.71 percent to 16.09 lakh tonnes compared to 16.94 lakh tonnes the previous year. This decline was driven by reduced palm oil imports caused by higher global prices and a weaker rupee. The rupee’s weakness had made imported edible oil more expensive.

According to SEA, throughout the November-August period of the 2025-26 oil year, total vegetable oil imports increased by four percent to 13.88 million tonnes, up from 13.337 million tonnes a year earlier. India, which is the world’s largest vegetable oil importer, purchased 1.572 million tonnes of edible oil and 37,150 tonnes of non-edible oil in August, in contrast to 1.688 million tonnes and 55,821 tonnes, respectively, from the previous year.

Refined edible oil imports rose to 1.01 lakh tonnes in August from 64,403 tonnes a year ago, while crude oil imports declined to 14.70 lakh tonnes from 16.24 lakh tonnes. Among crude oils, palm oil imports fell to 7.60 lakh tonnes from 9.79 lakh tonnes and sunflower oil to 1.55 lakh tonnes from 2.57 lakh tonnes, while soybean oil imports increased to 5.54 lakh tonnes from 3.87 lakh tonnes.